S&P downgrades SA banks to junk status
6 April 2017
Cape Town – Rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has downgraded South Africa’s banks to non-investment grade (BB+) to fall in line with its rating of the country.
Nedbank, Absa, Investec and FirstRand were downgrade by S&P after markets closed in South Africa on Wednesday, the rating agency website shows.
However, Nedbank said “SA bank ratings, including Nedbank’s, were placed under ratings review by Moody’s and lowered in line with the sovereign rating by Standard & Poor’s”.
It said banks cannot be rated higher than the country's foreign currency sovereign credit rating, which it downgraded to junk status last Thursday.