S&P Says Housing Prices Will Bottom Out in 2014

30/04/2014 – El Mundo

Standard & Poor´s credit rating for twelve Spanish banks indicates no changes for majority of the entites, taking into account that they have absorbed most of the losses caused by the loans adjusting to the bubble burst and double recession.

In the agency´s opinion, market correction is “at the verge of ending” and prices and activity are likely to remain on minimum levels this year. S&P´s also adds that “a slight rebound” has been observed in Spain´s collapsed economy.

“Hence, we expect the non-performing loans´ provisions to decline in 2014 and 2015 and settle on normal levels in 2016″, S&P says. The agency estimates that over the past five years the banks registered losses deriving from loans equal to 13.5% of all credits existing at the beginning of the crisis.

Moreover, the agency “sees balanced tendency in the sector” but it denies the rating improvement unless “a significant” capital reinforcement is detected.

In the review, Standard & Poor´s raised the rating of Banco Financiero y de Ahorros (BFA), from ‘B-‘ to ‘B’ with a negative outlook and decreased the outlook for Cecabank from  ‘positive’ to ‘stable’ in ‘BB+’ rating.

 What is more, the agency gave CaixaBank ‘BBB-‘ with ‘stable’ outlook, while Kutxabank and Barclays Bank S.A.U were labeled as ‘BBB-‘ with ‘negative’ outlook. Additionally, S&P´s considers lowering the note of La Caixa (presently ‘BB’).

Bankinter (‘BB’ with ‘positive’ outlook), Ibercaja (‘BB’, ‘stable’), Sabadell (‘BB’, ‘negative’), Bankia (‘BB-‘, ‘negative’) and Popular and NGC (both ‘B+’ with ‘negative’ outlook) have not changed their scores at all.

Original article: El Mundo

Translation: AURA REE

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