Clear market leader in domestic retail banking, a sector in which the bank generates good and stable earnings. Diversified businesses and income sources. Highly systemically important in France, which we classify as supportive of its banking sector. Relatively high economic risk in Italy, a country the group considers its second home market. The need to further adapt to upcoming stricter funding and capital regulations. The negative outlook indicates that we might lower the ratings by the end of 2015 if we believed there was a greater likelihood that senior unsecured creditors could incur losses if the bank failed. Specifically, we could lower the long-term rating by one notch if we considered that extraordinary government support was less predictable under the
