Fitch ups major Australian banks’ ratings in evaluating capacity to deal with default risks

By Andrei Skvarsky.

Fitch Ratings has given Australia’s five largest banks rating upgrades in assessing their capacity to keep their senior creditors protected if the lenders defaulted on their debt.

The long-term issuer default rating (IDR) was raised by one notch for each of the five banks – to A+ for Macquarie Bank and to AA- for Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), Commercial Bank of Australia (CommBank), National Australia Bank (NAB) and Westpac Banking Corporation.

Fitch’s outlook for all five lenders was stable, the New York- and London-based credit rating agency said in a commentary.

The five banks were close enough to meeting the loss absorbing capacity build-up target set by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) to be able to keep their senior creditors safe in the event of default, the commentary suggested.

Sorry, comments are closed for this post.