Global Trading and Universal Banks: Peer Review

...VRs Reflect Global Franchises: The Global Trading and Universal Banks (GTUBs) comprise 12 large banking groups that operate in a wide range of businesses globally. The GTUBs' Viability Ratings (VR) reflect the banks' leading franchises across several businesses, and all banks in the peer groups have material securities businesses, which Fitch Ratings considers potentially more volatile. This is reflected in our assessment of the banks' company profiles, which can constrain VRs where a bank's strategy is dependent on capital markets activities. Reducing Sovereign Support: The IDRs of four GTUBs are based on sovereign support (Bank of America, Deutsche Bank AG, Societe Generale and Morgan Stanley), and the Outlooks for three of these are Negative. This reflects Fitch's view that there is gathering momentum to resolve even the most complex banking groups without requiring state support. We expect to revise the Support Rating Floors (SRFs) for all GTUBs to `No Floor' during 1H15. This would...

Special Report