Strong evidence of the government's commitment to support the bank if financial stress persists; and Favorable economic growth prospects. Asset quality deterioration due to weakening quality of loans to the infrastructure sector; and High credit exposure, stemming from a focus on lending to the infrastructure sector, may continue pressuring capitalization levels throughout 2018. The negative outlook reflects the possibility of a downgrade in the next 12-24 months in a scenario of continued instability in the infrastructure sector that further erodes the bank's credit fundamentals. We could lower the ratings in the next 12-24 months if COFIDE's risk-adjusted capital (RAC) ratio drops to consistently below 5% or its business stability deteriorates more than we expect due to difficulties in restarting infrastructure
