NEW YORK (AP) -- Standard & Poor's Ratings Services on Friday lowered its ratings on 34 Italian banks, citing concerns over Italy's financial vulnerability and expectations for weak profits at the banks.
Among the banks downgraded were some of Italy's largest, including UniCredit SpA, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA and Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA.
The banking-sector downgrades came after S&P downgraded its credit rating on Italy's government debt by two notches last month.
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A homeless man sleeps inside the withdrawal area of a Intesa Sanpaolo bank in downtown Milan on Feb. 9. (Reuters-Yonhap News) |
"In our view, Italy's vulnerability to external financing risks has increased, given its high external public debt, resulting in Italian banks' significantly diminished ability to roll over their wholesale debt,'' S&P said in a statement.
The agency also lowered its Banking Industry Country Risk Assessment for Italy to "4'' from "3.'' The so-called BICRA rating is on a 1-to-10 scale, with "1'' representing countries with the lowest-risk banking systems.
"We anticipate persistently weak profitability for Italian banks in the next few years,'' S&P said.
S&P downgraded the credit ratings of a nine countries that use the euro in January, including bumping Italy's credit rating down two notches. Debt ratings can play a significant role in determining countries' borrowing costs by forcing them to pay higher interest rates to compensate borrowers for taking on added risk.
Italy has been a focus of much of the worry over the European debt crisis, given its high debt levels and intense borrowing needs. The country passed austerity measures and is on a structural reform course that government leaders claim should bring down Italy's high bond yields.
The S&P downgrade last month did not have the immediate disastrous effect in Europe that was anticipated, due in part to growing investor confidence in those countries' economic policies and the impact of the European Central Bank's decision to loan hundreds of billions of euros to banks at very low rates.
However, Fitch Ratings followed suit in two weeks with a special warning for Italy that it could face permanently higher borrowing costs that would make it harder to keep its debt under control. It resisted stronger ratings action because of the ``strong commitment'' of the new Italian government to balance the country's budget and make Italy a better place to do business.
<한글기사>
S&P, 이탈리아 34개 은행 신용등급 강등
국제 신용평가사인 스탠더드 앤드 푸어스(S&P)는 10일(미국시간) 이탈리아 37개 은행 가운데 34곳의 신용등급을 하향조정했다.
S&P는 이날 성명을 내고 이탈리아 국가 신용등급이 하향조정된데다 이탈리아 은행권의 리스크등급도 한 단계 하향조정돼 이를 반영했다고 설명했다.
등급이 강등된 은행에는 유니크레딧 SpA와 인테사상파올로, 방카 몬테 데이 파스치 디 시에나 등 대형은행들이 대거 포함돼 있다.
S&P는 이에 앞서 지난달 13일 이탈리아의 국가 신용등급을 A에서 BBB+로 2단계 하향 조정하는 등 유로존(유로화 사용국) 9개국의 신용등급을 강등했다.
유로존 제3위 경제국인 이탈리아는 국내총생산(GDP)의 120%에 달하는 1조9천억 유로(약 2천770조원)의 정부 부채를 안고 있으며 국가재정 안정화를 위해 강력한 긴축조치들을 시행하고 있다.
하지만 이런 긴축조치로 이탈리아의 성장률이 더욱 낮아져 경기침체가 심화될 것이라는 평가를 받고 있다. (연합뉴스)
