Moody's downgrade six German banks

by Aaron Strutt

Jun 08 2012

Moody's have downgraded six banks in Germany and three in Austria. The biggest bank to be included was Commerzbank, Germany's second-biggest lender, which was cut to A3 from A2. The six German banking groups affected were Commerzbank, DekaBank, DZ Bank, Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg, Landesbank Hessen-Thueringen and Norddeutsche Landesbank.

A report on Moody's website says:  “We downgraded six German banking groups and one German subsidiary of a foreign group by one notch, and confirmed the ratings for one group.  We also downgraded the ratings of three major Austrian banks. “The reviews, initiated on 15 February, are driven by the difficult European operating environment caused by the prolonged euro area crisis and the deteriorating creditworthiness of certain euro area sovereigns. To date, we have also taken actions on banks in Spain, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland.”

June 8, 2012