In our view, Ceska Sporitelna's (Ceska's) leading retail franchise in the Czech Republic continues to demonstrate stability, which translates into sound earnings and strong capitalization. At the same time, we consider that potential extraordinary government support for systemically important banks, such as Ceska, will likely decrease when the EU Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD) is transposed into national law and if a single resolution framework is implemented for European cross-border banking groups in the EU. We are therefore affirming our long- and short-term ratings on Ceska at 'A-/A-2', which incorporate one notch of support for systemic importance. The negative outlook reflects our view of a one-in-three possibility the introduction of new regulations will decrease the likelihood of extraordinary government
