The Bank of East Asia And Its China Subsidiary 'A/A-1' Ratings Affirmed; Outlook Negative

On June 22, 2016, Hong Kong's Legislative Council passed the Financial Institutions (Resolution) Ordinance. Once this is implemented, we are likely to assess that government support for banks has weakened. Given our view of the current moderately high likelihood of government support to BEA, we are affirming our 'A' long-term and 'A-1' short-term issuer credit ratings on BEA and its core subsidiary BEA China. We are also affirming the 'cnAA+/cnA-1' Greater China regional scale ratings on the banks. The negative rating outlook reflects the prospect that we will reduce our rating uplift for government support, and therefore downgrade BEA by one notch, if the ordinance is implemented within the next two years. The outlook also reflects the prospect of growing

...+ On June 22, 2016, Hong Kong's Legislative Council passed the Financial Institutions (Resolution) Ordinance. Once this is implemented, we are likely to assess that government support for banks has weakened. + Given our view of the current moderately high likelihood of government support to BEA, we are affirming our 'A' long-term and 'A-1' short-term issuer credit ratings on BEA and its core subsidiary BEA China. We are also affirming the 'cnAA+/cnA-1' Greater China regional scale ratings on the banks. + The negative rating outlook reflects the prospect that we will reduce our rating uplift for government support, and therefore downgrade BEA by one notch, if the ordinance is implemented within the next two years. The outlook also reflects the prospect of growing economic risks impacting BEA in the Hong Kong and mainland China's banking sectors. HONG KONG (S&P Global Ratings) Aug. 3, 2016--S&P Global Ratings said today that it had affirmed its 'A' long-term and 'A-1' short-term issuer credit...

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