Credito Italiano Asgnd 'A' Rtg By S&P; Outlook Stable.LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Standard & Poor's CreditWire 11/5/97--Standard & Poor's today assigned its single-'A' long-term counterparty Counterparty The other participant, including intermediaries, in a swap or contract. credit rating to Credito Italiano SpA. The outlook on the rating is stable. At the same time, the bank's short-term counterparty rating of 'A-1' is affirmed af·firm v. af·firmed, af·firm·ing, af·firms v.tr. 1. To declare positively or firmly; maintain to be true. 2. To support or uphold the validity of; confirm. v.intr. . The ratings reflect the bank's strong and improved market position in Italy, better asset quality, and superior management team. Credito Italiano is among the largest banking groups in Italy, with total consolidated assets of Italian lira LIRA. The name of a foreign coin. In all computations at the custom house, the lira of Sardinia shall be estimated at eighteen cents and six mills. Act of March 22, 1846. The lira of the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom, and the lira of Tuscany, at sixteen cents. Act of March 22, 1846. (ITL ITL The ISO 4217 currency code for the Italian Lira. ) 175,067 billion (approximately US$101 billion) at year-end 1996. In February 1996, Credito Italiano took control of Credito Romagnolo, which was merged with Carimonte Banca to form Rolo Banca 1473 SpA on Dec. 31, 1995. Rolo Banca is a leading bank in the affluent Emilia Romagna region in northeast Italy Northeast Italy (Italian: Italia nord-orientale) is an informal cultural and geographic region of Italy and subregion of northern Italy. It is generally considered to be comprised of three Italian regions: Veneto, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, and Friuli-Venezia . The merger has been successfully completed and Rolo Banca has distinguished itself by a performance that is almost unparalleled in the Italian banking system today. While the intention is that Rolo Banca retains its independence, some synergies with the parent bank are being implemented, especially in asset management, a business where the Credito Italiano group is a market leader. Therefore, the inclusion of Rolo Banca in the Credito Italiano banking group is positive for the latter's ratings. A new management team has been in place at Credito Italiano since 1995, and has embarked upon a widespread restructuring restructuring - The transformation from one representation form to another at the same relative abstraction level, while preserving the subject system's external behaviour (functionality and semantics). effort at the parent bank, clarifying the bank's strategic direction, and focusing the bank's activities. The positive effect of this is indicated in the reduction in the level of bad debts seen at the bank through 1996 (consolidated doubtful loans fell to 5.5% of total loans at year-end 1996 from 6.2% the previous year). Although there is still room for improvement, Standard & Poor's considers that Credito Italiano has led peers in the recognition and treatment of its problem loans. Credito Italiano, whose capital indicators were quite weak following the Rolo Banca acquisition, has also significantly strengthened its capital position. The bank expects to have a Tier I ratio of 6.5% at the end of 1997, thanks to downsizing (1) Converting mainframe and mini-based systems to client/server LANs. (2) To reduce equipment and associated costs by switching to a less-expensive system. (jargon) downsizing , a restructured balance sheet, the strong contribution from Rolo Banca, and the exercise of warrants. OUTLOOK: STABLE Though the operating environment In computing, an operating environment is the environment in which users run programs, whether in a command line interface, such as in MS-DOS or the Unix shell, or in a graphical user interface, such as in the Macintosh operating system. is becoming increasingly competitive, Standard & Poor's expects that Credito Italiano will continue to benefit from the implementation of its strategy. The bank's performance is expected to improve, not only from better cost controls and lower provisions but also from higher income generation, especially from fee related income, Standard & Poor's said. -- CreditWire CONTACT: Richard Thomas Richard Thomas is the name of:
Arnaud De Toytot, Paris (33) 1-4420-6692 For more information on criteria or subscriptions: http://www.ratings.standardpoor.com |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion