...Since end\012007, Fitch Ratings has downgraded the Long\01Term (L T) Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) of four leading French banking groups, namely Cr dit Agricole (CA) group to AA\01 from AA , Groupe Caisse d Epargne (GCE) to A+ from AA\01 , Soci t G n rale (SG) to AA\01 from AA and La Banque Postale (LBP) to AA\01 from AA+ . As the French banking system is composed of large groups, many of which include subsidiary banks and financial companies which share the same, or notched, ratings, this means that a total of 12 French bank and financial company IDRs have been downgraded by Fitch since the onset of the credit crisis in August 2007. Individual Ratings have also suffered, namely those of Natixis (latest downgrade to D f rom C/D ), GCE and Groupe Banque Populaire (GBP) (both to C from B ), Calyon (to C from B/C ) and SG (to B from A/B ). With the exception of LBP, where the downgrading of its Support\01driven...
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