Fitch: Most U.S. bank ratings unaffected by Dodd-Frank

Fitch Ratings said the issuer default ratings of most U.S. bank and bank holding companies are unchanged following the agency's initial interpretation of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and its implications for systemically important financial institutions.

However, these companies' support ratings, support floors and other ratings that are dependent on sovereign support were placed on Rating Watch negative.

The act grants the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. authority to implement the resolution of financial institutions deemed to be systemically important and proposes rules to govern the way the FDIC does so. Fitch said a recently released Notice of Public Rulemaking related to the matter said that under no circumstances should taxpayers ever be called upon to bail out systemically important financial institutions in the future, nor be exposed to loss in the resolution of these companies, and that creditors, including senior bondholders, should bear their proportion of the loss in an orderly resolution.

Fitch said this more stringent mandate to impose losses on senior unsecured creditors calls into question the very core of its support rating framework. The resolution of the Rating Watches will be based in part on language from the final rule once formally adopted as well as the agency's view on how the final rule will impact its view of support.

The issuer default ratings of the following companies are unchanged:

• Fifth Third Bancorp and Fifth Third Bank;

• Comerica Inc. and Comerica Bank;

• KeyCorp and KayBank, NA;

• SunTrust Banks, Inc. and SunTrust Bank;

• Northern Trust Corp. and Northern Trust Co.;

• Regions Financial Corp. and Regions Bank;

• Bank of Guam;

• Bank of New York Mellon Corp. and Bank of New York Mellon;

• Wells Fargo Bank, NA and Wells Fargo Bank Northwest, NA;

• State Street Corp. and State Street Bank and Trust Co.;

• U.S. Bancorp and U.S. Bank NA;

• BB&T Corp., Branch Banking and Trust Co. and BB&T Financial, FSB;

• PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. and PNC Bank, NA;

• JPMorgan Chase & Co., JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA, Chase Bank USA, NA, JPMorgan Bank & Trust Co., NA and JPMorgan Chase Bank, Dearborn; and

• Popular, Inc. and Banco Popular de Puerto Rico.

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