FT Alphaville » Fitch

Upgrade driven rally du matin

David Keohane — Wed, 15 May 2013 09:11:27 +0000

An upgrade in this environment is apparently stupidly effective. Here’s Greece’s 10-year bond yield tumbling a full one per cent the day after Fitch upgraded it to to B- from CCC, and said the outlook was stable:

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La brutta figura

Joseph Cotterill — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 17:40:59 +0000

Italy has finally fallen out of the ‘A’ ratings and into the Bs, at Fitch Ratings.

Here’s the explanation for cutting it to BBB+, outlook negative:

Continue reading: La brutta figura

Mind the rate risk

Masa Serdarevic — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 14:38:19 +0000

Central banks have kept rates ultra-low since the financial crisis, trying to stimulate economic growth. Whether one regards this as successful or not, one can agree that it has costs. A line item with a particularly nasty looking question mark above it is a corporate bond bubble.

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Hey look, even wealthy countries can suffer creditworthiness-threatening financial crises

Kate Mackenzie — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 10:51:38 +0000

Moody’s announced on Tuesday that it’s reviewing its sovereign credit ratings methodology, and seeking comment from industry participants.

The review comes probably not a moment too soon — and we are not just talking about the French getting very cranky. Bloomberg reckons Moody’s sovereign ratings are unpopular, even by the low standards of sovereign ratings popularity:

Continue reading: Hey look, even wealthy countries can suffer creditworthiness-threatening financial crises

Money market charts du matin

David Keohane — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 11:15:47 +0000

It might look a little underwhelming but that’s US prime money market funds increasing their exposure to eurozone banks for the third month in a row. At the end of September they were 16 per cent more expoosed on a dollar basis compared to the month before, according to Fitch.

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Black clouds, and Fitch

Joseph Cotterill — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 17:58:38 +0000

Fitch judges the risk of a fiscal financing crisis to be negligible…

But the rating agency still cranked up the negativity on the UK’s AAA rating on Friday. They affirmed it, but have been on negative outlook since March.

Continue reading: Black clouds, and Fitch

Fitch junks Cyprus

David Keohane — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 09:38:04 +0000

(Alternate title: Fitch junks incoming EU president.)

Fitch has cut Cyprus’ credit rating to ‘BB+’ from ‘BBB-’. That’s a junking and, shockingly, it’s down to the banks. From Fitch (with our emphasis):

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Local Spanish press: auditors find banks need €65bn

Masa Serdarevic — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 14:49:26 +0000

The review of the Spanish banks by the “big four” auditors may have been postponed until September, but there is another!

It’s by Oliver Wyman and Roland Berger, and at pixel time it looked like the Spanish press were reporting that the banking system needs around another €65bn in capital.

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Dear Switzerland, good call on Credit Suisse. Yours, Fitch p.s. We love you

David Keohane — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 10:53:31 +0000

This is kinda sweet. From Fitch:

The Swiss National Bank’s (SNB) statement that UBS (‘A’/Stable/’a-’) and Credit Suisse Group (‘A’/Stable/’a') should promptly improve their loss-absorbing capacity confirms that Switzerland maintains one of Europe’s strictest supervisory frameworks for banks, Fitch Ratings says.

Continue reading: Dear Switzerland, good call on Credit Suisse. Yours, Fitch p.s. We love you

A quick note on Fitch’s downgrade of Spain (updated)

David Keohane — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 12:21:45 +0000

UPDATE: The below is an accidental exaggeration and ignores the role of the fourth rating agency, DBRS, which Joseph recently posted about. For a collateral hike to take place DBRS would have to reduce its rating on Spain to BBBH/BBB. It is currently at A (high) with a negative outlook having been downgraded in May.

As JPMorgan’s Flows & Liquidity said in May:

Continue reading: A quick note on Fitch’s downgrade of Spain (updated)