Bulletin: El Salvador's Debt Exchange Won't Affect Banking Industry Country Risk Assessment And Banco Agricola's Credit Quality

MEXICO CITY (S&P Global Ratings) May 11, 2023--S&P Global Ratings said today that its global scale issuer credit ratings and outlook on El Salvador-based Banco Agricola S.A. (B-/Negative/B) are not affected by the recent rating action on the sovereign. El Salvador conducted a pension debt exchange on April 28, 2023, through which it offered private pension funds a mix of new certificates to replace earlier sovereign financial obligations, which we view as distressed owing to the government's limited financing alternatives. Given that the new instruments under the exchange were already delivered to the pension funds, we now deem the distressed exchange cured. For more details, refer to "El Salvador Downgraded To 'SD' On Pension Debt Exchange", May 9, 2023, and

...May 11, 2023 MEXICO CITY (S&P Global Ratings) May 11, 2023--S&P Global Ratings said today that its global scale issuer credit ratings and outlook on El Salvador-based Banco Agricola S.A. (B-/Negative/B) are not affected by the recent rating action on the sovereign. El Salvador conducted a pension debt exchange on April 28, 2023, through which it offered private pension funds a mix of new certificates to replace earlier sovereign financial obligations, which we view as distressed owing to the government's limited financing alternatives. Given that the new instruments under the exchange were already delivered to the pension funds, we now deem the distressed exchange cured. For more details, refer to "El Salvador Downgraded To '##' On Pension Debt Exchange", May 9, 2023, and "El Salvador Upgraded To '###+/C' On Cured Distressed Debt Exchange; Outlook Stable", May 10, 2023. Given Banco Agricola's asset-liability management, the bank doesn't have exposure to pension fund securities in its investment...

Bulletin