As the U.K. continues to negotiate its exit from the EU, we see a diminished risk that a related sharp economic downturn would adversely affect the country's banking sector. Additionally, Lloyds has made solid progress in recent months in building its bail-in buffer, which serves to protect senior creditors of the operating companies if the bank fails. We are revising our outlook on Lloyds Banking Group PLC to stable from negative, and our outlook on its bank operating companies to positive from negative. The positive outlook reflects our view that we could upgrade these companies, probably during 2018, if the group makes further good progress in the ramp-up of its bail-in buffer and its operating performance continues to improve. On
