HONG KONG (Standard&Poor's) Feb. 18, 2016--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that the credit profiles of four major Korean commercial banks--namely KEB Hana Bank (A/Stable/A-1), Kookmin Bank (A/Stable/A-1), Shinhan Bank (A/Stable/A-1), and Woori Bank (A-/Stable/A-2)--are likely to remain stable after their announcement of preliminary results for 2015. The results for KEB Hana, Kookmin, and Shinhan were largely in line with our expectations while Woori Bank's results were better than expected due to some provisioning write backs in the fourth quarter of 2015. We believe the banks' profitability will remain under slight pressure in 2016. However, we expect the banks to maintain their current levels of capitalization amid a modest outlook for loan growth. We also think they
