Moody’s assigns Citizens Bank notes A3

Moody's Investors Service said it assigned an A3 rating to Citizens Bank, NA's new senior bank notes.

The outlook is negative.

At the same time, the agency rated the bank note program provisional A3/provisional Prime-2 for senior obligations and provisional Baa1 for subordinated obligations.

Citizens Bank is a bank subsidiary of Citizens Financial Group, Inc., a non-rated intermediate holding company within the U.S. organization structure of the Royal Bank of Scotland plc (BFSR/BCA D+/ba1, long-term deposits Baa1).

The assigned ratings follow the agency’s normal notching practices. Citizens Bank has a standalone bank financial strength rating of C and a baseline credit assessment of a3. The bank is rated A3 and Prime-2 for long- and short-term deposits, respectively.

Moody’s said the ratings are supported by Citizens' retail and commercial banking franchise across 11 states in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest regions of the United States. Its risk profile benefits from high capital ratios and good deposit funding. However, its profitability is below the same-rated peer median, driven by a relatively low net interest margin. A key credit challenge for the company is to maintain its conservative risk profile while establishing its independence from RBS and improving its profitability.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.