...Leading Regional Franchise: Ibercaja Banco, S.A.'s Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) are driven by its standalone creditworthiness as captured in the Viability Rating (VR). The VR reflects the bank's leading regional retail franchise, providing pricing power and stable deposit funding, and improving but still weak asset quality by international standards. It also factors in modest core banking earnings, legacy real estate exposures, and weaker capital than many peers. Just Acceptable Capitalisation: Ibercaja's capitalisation remains tight and compares unfavourably with many peers. At end-1H15 the fully loaded common equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio was 9.2%, while the Fitch Core Capital (FCC) ratio was lower at 7.9% because we deduct the net asset value of the insurance subsidiaries instead of risk-weighting them. Ibercaja also has EUR0.4bn of state-owned CoCos, which boost the Fitch eligible capital (FEC) ratio to an acceptable 9.6%. However, these CoCos will be repaid by end-2017. At end-1H15 unreserved...
