Fitch Ratings has upgraded the credit ratings of Greece’s four systemic banks-National Bank of Greece, Piraeus Bank, Alpha Bank and Eurobank.
More specifically, Fitch upgraded the credit ratings of National Bank of Greece and Eurobank to BB from BB and the ratings of Alpha Bank and Piraeus Bank to BB from BB-. All four banks have been assigned a positive outlook.
“The upgrade mainly reflects Fitch’s improved assessment of Greece’s operating environment (OE) to ‘bb ’. We expect the Greek economy to continue to outperform the eurozone average. Paired with falling unemployment and the deployment of the country’s Recovery and Resilience Facility, this should support banks’ ability to capture profitable business opportunities,” according to the announcement.
“We expect the Greek economy to continue to outperform”
“We expect the Greek economy to continue to outperform the Eurozone average. The fact of the reduction of unemployment and the utilization of the Recovery and Resilience Facility will be expected to support the ability of the banks to take advantage of profitable business opportunities,” it is emphasized.
“Continuous Credit Profile Improvements”
“The upgrade also reflects continued improvements in the credit profile of the four systemic banks, including a further reduction in the stock of non-performing assets (which include non-performing exposures (NPEs)) and healthy profitability resulting in capital accumulation,” Fitch said and added:
“The positive outlook reflects Fitch’s expectation that OE’s rating could improve further if positive macroeconomic trends continue and lead to satisfactory business opportunities for banks.”