Fitch Upgrades three Greek Banks’ senior preferred debt, reflecting improved recovery prospects

Fitch Ratings on Monday announced that it has upgraded the long-term senior preferred (SP) debt rating two systemic Greek lenders, namely, National Bank of Greece S.A. (NBG) and Eurobank S.A. (Eurobank) to ‘B-‘/’RR4’ from ‘CCC’/’RR6’.

The international ratings firm also upgraded Piraeus Bank S.A.’s long-term SP debt rating to ‘CCC’/’RR5’ from ‘CCC-‘/’RR6′.

According to Fitch, the upgrades reflects its assessment that “recoveries for the banks’ SP creditors have improved because of subdued asset-quality risks, following a recovery in the Greek operating environment and progress made in their respective de-risking plans, including the sale of substantial portfolios of non-performing exposures (NPE).

Additionally, we believe that the recent disclosure of banks’ minimum requirements for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) will underpin the build-up of larger resolution debt buffers and increase the protection that could accrue to SP creditors in a default scenario.”