Ratings Affirmed On Three Puerto Rican Banks Amid The Continued Recovery From Infrastructure Challenges

OVERVIEW The rating affirmations on FirstBank Puerto Rico, OFG Bancorp, and Popular Inc. primarily reflect our view that the three Puerto Rican banks' operations have generally recovered from the devastating impact of Hurricane Maria and their financial performance is generally in line with our expectations and consistent with our current ratings. Despite the ongoing post-hurricane recovery efforts, we believe Puerto Rico continues to face substantial infrastructure, economic, and fiscal challenges. As such, we expect that a full recovery will be prolonged, given uncertainty about the inflow of insurance payments, federal spending allocations, and the territory's fiscal plan. We are affirming our ratings on FirstBank Puerto Rico, OFG Bancorp, and Popular Inc. and maintaining the negative outlooks on OFG Bancorp and

...OVERVIEW + The rating affirmations on FirstBank Puerto Rico, OFG Bancorp, and Popular Inc. primarily reflect our view that the three Puerto Rican banks' operations have generally recovered from the devastating impact of Hurricane Maria and their financial performance is generally in line with our expectations and consistent with our current ratings. + Despite the ongoing post-hurricane recovery efforts, we believe Puerto Rico continues to face substantial infrastructure, economic, and fiscal challenges. As such, we expect that a full recovery will be prolonged, given uncertainty about the inflow of insurance payments, federal spending allocations, and the territory's fiscal plan. + We are affirming our ratings on FirstBank Puerto Rico, OFG Bancorp, and Popular Inc. and maintaining the negative outlooks on OFG Bancorp and Popular Inc., but we are revising the outlook on FirstBank Puerto Rico to stable from negative, based on the risks we foresee for the bank relative to its current rating...

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