Core subsidiary of Intesa Sanpaolo. A strong franchise and market position in northern Italy. More conservative risk appetite than the peer average. Modest profitability compared with peers'. Asset quality metrics vulnerable to deteriorating economic conditions. The negative outlook on UBI Banca SpA (UBI) mirrors that on its parent, Intesa, and our long-term rating on Italy. As long as we view UBI as a core entity within the group, a negative rating action on Intesa would trigger a similar rating action on the bank. Similarly, if we revised our outlook on Intesa to stable, we would take the same rating action on UBI. We do not assign outlooks to bank issue ratings. However, we now notch down the ratings on UBI's
