Global Arab Network | Moody's upgrades four Lebanese banks following sovereign upgrade

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Moody's upgrades four Lebanese banks following sovereign upgrade

Global Arab Network - - Maha Karim

Friday, 03 April 2009 12:15

Moody's Investors Service today upgraded to B2 from B3 the constrained long-term foreign currency deposit ratings of four Lebanese banks -- BLOM Bank, Byblos Bank, Bank Audi and Bank of Beirut. Moody's also upgraded Byblos Bank's constrained foreign currency senior and subordinated bond ratings to B1 from B2. The outlook on these ratings is now stable.

"The rating action was prompted by Moody's recent upgrade of the Lebanese sovereign ceilings that continue to act as a cap on the affected bank ratings: the foreign currency deposit ceiling was upgraded to B2 from B3 and the foreign currency bond ceiling to B1 from B2 (see separate press release dated 1 April). The sovereign upgrades reflected the substantial improvement in the country's external liquidity, the proven resilience of the Lebanese public finances to shocks and the relative strength of the country's banking system," says Stathis Kyriakides, a Limassol-based Moody's Assistant Vice President - Analyst, and lead analyst for Lebanese banks.

The four banks' respective bank financial strength ratings, global local currency deposit ratings, local and foreign currency short-term ratings and national scale ratings are not affected by this rating action.

Moody's previous rating action on these four Lebanese banks was on 11 December 2008, when it changed the outlook on their long-term foreign currency deposit ratings to positive from stable.

The principal methodologies used in rating the Lebanese banks covered by this press release are "Bank Financial Strength Ratings: Global Methodology" and "Incorporation of Joint-Default Analysis into Moody's Bank Ratings: A Refined Methodology", which can be found at www.moodys.com in the Credit Policy & Methodologies directory, in the Ratings Methodologies subdirectory. Other methodologies and factors that may have been considered in the process of rating the banks can also be found in the Credit Policy & Methodologies directory.

All four Moody's-rated banks are headquartered in Beirut:

- Bank Audi had total assets of LBP30.8 trillion (US$20.4 billion) at year-end 2008.

- BLOM Bank had total assets of LBP26.9 trillion (US$17.9 billion) at year-end 2008.

- Byblos Bank had total assets of LBP16.9 trillion (US$11.2 billion) at year-end 2008.

- Bank of Beirut had total assets of LBP8.6 trillion (US$5.7 billion) at year-end 2008.
Global Arab Network

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