Moody’s downgrades ratings of 7 French banks and backed ratings of another 6 French 

Moody’s Investors Service has today taken rating actions on seven French banks as well as downgraded the ratings backed by the French government of another six banks. The outlook on all of the affected ratings is stable.

Moody’s has downgraded EPIC BPI-Groupe’s (BPI) long-term issuer rating to Aa2 from Aa1 and Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations’ (CDC) long-term bank deposit and senior unsecured ratings to Aa2 from Aa1. CDC’s Prime-1 short-term ratings have also been affirmed.

Moody’s has downgraded the long-term deposit and senior unsecured ratings of Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel (BFCM), Crédit Industriel et Commercial (CIC) and Crédit Mutuel Arkea (CMA) to Aa3 from Aa2. Moody’s has downgraded BFCM, CIC and CMA’s Counterparty Risk (CR) assessments to Aa2(cr) from Aa1(cr). Their Baseline Credit Assessments (BCAs) and adjusted BCAs were affirmed at baa1 and a2, respectively, and all other ratings of BFCM, CIC and CMA were also affirmed.

Moody’s has downgraded Agence France Locale’s (AFL) and Société de Financement Local’s (SFIL) issuer ratings and long-term deposits and senior unsecured debt ratings to Aa3 from Aa2. AFL’s and SFIL’s CR assessments were downgraded to Aa3(cr) from Aa2(cr) and Aa2(cr) from Aa1(cr) respectively. Both banks’ BCAs and adjusted BCAs were affirmed at a3 and their short-term ratings were affirmed at Prime-1.

At the same time, Moody’s has downgraded to Aa2 from Aa1 the ratings backed by the French government of the following six entities:

• Banque PSA Finance;
• BPIfrance Financement;
• Caisse Autonome de Refinancement (CAR) ;
• Caisse Centrale du Crédit Immobilier de France (3CIF) ;
• CDC Ixis and Ixis CIB.

Dexia Credit Local’s (DCL) backed senior unsecured rating is unaffected by today’s action as, while DCL’s senior creditors benefit from the guarantee provided by the governments of Belgium, France and Luxembourg, the rating is derived from the Belgian government bond rating of Aa3, stable.

Finally, Moody’s changed France’s Macro Profile to Strong+ from Very Strong-.

The ratings and outlooks on other French banks rated by Moody’s are unaffected by today’s action.

Today’s actions were prompted by the weakening of the French government’s credit profile, as captured by Moody’s downgrade of France’s government bond rating to Aa2 (stable) from Aa1 (negative). For more details, please refer to Moody’s press release dated 18 September, 2015 at https://www.moodys.com/research/–PR_334715

Source: Moody’s 

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