The story appears on

Page A14

July 6, 2012

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Business » Economy

Barclays credit rating now in jeopardy

TWO leading credit rating agencies took steps yesterday toward downgrading Barclays in the wake of a trading scandal that's seen three senior officials, including chief executive Bob Diamond, resign.

Though both Moody's and Standard & Poor's maintained their ratings on the bank, they lowered their outlooks to "negative" from "stable." That means that a downgrade of the actual rating is now more likely.

Barclays did receive some respite from another of the three big agencies, Fitch Ratings, which said its view was unaltered by the interest rate scandal and resignations.

Although Fitch said political, regulatory and reputation risks for Barclays and other major global banks had increased, it added "the direct implications (for Barclays), in terms of the size of the regulatory settlements announced last week, are easily manageable given its capital and earnings capacity."

The other two agencies took a less generous view.

S&P said its revised outlook reflected, in part, "our view that the impact on Barclays' overall franchise may persist for an extended period, which in turn could lead to both weaker and less stable revenue generation."

Moody's said it was concerned the resignations and the consequent uncertainty about the company's direction could negatively impact on bondholders.





 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend