...BUENOS AIRES (S&P Global Ratings) Dec. 19, 2017--S&P Global Ratings said today that its ratings and outlook on Banco de Galicia y Buenos Aires (Banco Galicia; B+/Stable/--) aren't affected by the corporate reorganization announced by Grupo Financiero Galicia S.A. (G.F.G.; not rated) and its subsidiary Banco Galicia. Under this reorganization, Banco Galicia will transfer its 77% stake in Tarjetas Regionales S.A. (not rated) to G.F.G. and in turn will receive a capital infusion of up to ARS10 billion that will more than compensate for the impact of the transaction. Overall, we expect the transaction to result in an improvement in Banco Galicia's capital levels. However, this won't affect the ratings on the bank because they will continue to be limited by the sovereign ratings on Argentina. We rarely rate financial institutions higher than the sovereigns where they operate, because we consider it unlikely that these institutions would be unaffected by developments in domestic economies. Only...
