The ratings on French car-financing company RCI Banque reflect its sound stand-alone financial profile, including conservative liquidity management, strong capitalization, and satisfactory profitability, as well as limited financial exposure to its parent and status as a fully regulated bank. Constraining rating factors include RCI's wholesale-funded profile, its strong business concentration on car-financing activities and its reliance on the branding of its parent Renault S.A. (BB/Stable/B). RCI is wholly owned by Renault and acts, in our view, as a captive finance arm for parent. The bank is an integral part of Renault's worldwide strategy, promoting customer loyalty and supporting its parent's car sales by essentially offering auto loans to retail customers and short-term loans to the dealer network to finance their
