We expect BOCHK to benefit from the Hong Kong government's extraordinary support if needed, due to the bank's high systemic importance to the Hong Kong banking sector. We also expect the bank to continue to benefit from extraordinary support from the Chinese government because of the "special administrative" relationship between the two governments and the fact that BOCHK is a subsidiary of the Chinese government-owned BOC. We are affirming our 'A+' long-term and 'A-1' short-term issuer credit ratings on BOCHK. We expect BOCHK to maintain its strong credit profile over the next two years. The stable outlook reflects our expectation that BOCHK will maintain its well-established market franchise, solid capitalization, and an above-average funding and strong liquidity profile over the
