- The agency has raised the bank’s rating to BBB- with a positive outlook.
- This new rating reflects the success of the business diversification strategy, which has positioned Cecabank as a strategic provider of services in the Spanish financial system.
- Standard & Poor’s considers Cecabank to have achieved a very high level of capitalisation thanks to its deleveraging and reducing risks over the last few quarters.
Standard & Poor’s has raised Cecabank's long and short-term ratings by one step to BBB- and A-3, respectively, and maintained its positive outlook. The individual credit profile has improved from bb+ to bbb-.
The agency said that the new rating reflected the success of the diversification towards the securities services business and the role of Cecabank as a strategic supplier of services in the Spanish banking sector.
The agency considers that Cecabank has consolidated its solvency position in recent quarters and that the entity has reduced its exposure to credit and market risk. The decision was favoured by the increasing amounts set aside for reserves over the past year. Standard & Poor’s has therefore gone from rating the institution's capital level and profits as «adequate» to «strong».
Lastly, Standard & Poor’s projects that Cecabank's positive outlook will be strengthened with improved GDP growth forecasts between 2014 and 2016, and the expansionary monetary policy the agency expects eurozone policymakers to maintain. The positive rating of the Spanish banking system has also helped, which, according to Standard & Poor’s, has managed to absorb losses associated with adjustments in the property sector and the double-dip recession.
