BPER: Fitch Ratings revised long-term rating to “BB” and confirmed short-term rating

BPER informs that today, the rating agency Fitch, within various rating actions taken on Italian and international banks, revised the Bank’s long-term rating to “BB” from “BB+”. At the same time, Fitch affirmed short-term rating at “B”. Outlook has improved to “stable” from “negative” reflecting that the prospects for BPER’s standalone viability, excluding any sovereign support in the event that the bank becomes non-viable, currently, are stable.

The rating action is in conjunction with Fitch's review of sovereign support for banks in the event that banks become non-viable, following the implementation of the regulatory framework of the EU Directive on the management and resolution of intermediaries’ crises called the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (“BRRD”) and the Single Resolution Mechanism (“SRM”). Fitch believes legislative, regulatory and policy initiatives have substantially reduced the likelihood of sovereign support for US, Swiss and European Union commercial banks. Full application of BRRD is required from 1st January 2016. As a consequence, Fitch has, therefore, revised BPER’s Support Rating (“SR”) to “5” from “3” and the Support Rating Floor (“SRF”) to “No Floor” from “BB+”. 

As a result of the revision of the SRF, the Long-term Issuer Default Rating (“IDR”) is now driven by BPER’s standalone creditworthiness as expressed in its Viability Rating, which has been affirmed at “bb”.

The original text of the press release published by Fitch is available on the rating agency's website (www.fitchratings.com).