Banco de Galicia y Buenos Aires (SD/--/--), an Argentine bank, has started a round of contacts with its international creditors to restructure part of its foreign currency debt, and, if possible, to convert this debt to capital instruments. In the past three months, the bank has been sustaining large deposit withdrawals, which it has been substantially funding with Argentine Central Bank liquidity facilities. Banco Galicia remains one of the largest creditors of the Argentine federal and provincial governments. These actions will not impact Standard&Poor's counterparty credit ratings on the bank, which indicate that it is already in default on certain obligations.
