The global multiline insurance company AXA Group recently provided an update on its strategic focus, indicating that it intends to reduce and rationalize the footprint of several entities, including AXA Bank Belgium (ABB). We are revising our view on ABB's strategic importance accordingly, to strategically important from highly strategic, and we therefore no longer assume AXA's exceptional liquidity would be available to ABB in case of distress. We are affirming our 'A+' long-term rating on ABB and lowering our short-term rating to 'A-1' from 'A-1+'. The stable outlook reflects our expectation that ABB will maintain its current Belgium-focused strategy and preserve strong capitalization, and that it will remain a strategically important bank for AXA group. On Dec. 20, 2017, S&P
