We believe that the Canadian banking sector is encountering incremental pressure from headwinds facing the Canadian economy, which is heightening economic risk in the banking system. We also believe industry risk for the Canadian banking sector is increasing. We expect that intensifying competition for loans and deposits will lead to pressure on profitability growth, especially in banks' retail businesses. We are lowering our long- and short-term issuer credit ratings on Laurentian Bank to 'BBB/A-2' from 'BBB+/A-2', and assigning a stable outlook, following our revision of Laurentian Bank's stand-alone credit profile to 'bbb' from 'bbb+'. In conjunction with these actions, we are also lowering our issue ratings on Laurentian Bank's senior unsecured debt to 'BBB' from 'BBB+' and its nondeferrable subordinated
