Banks on the Frontline of Lebanon's Crisis Get Downgraded by S&P - Bloomberg

Banks on the Frontline of Lebanon's Crisis Get Downgraded by S&P - Bloomberg:

Three top banks in Lebanon were downgraded below the sovereign by S&P Global Ratings, which warned that the country’s economic crisis is draining liquidity from lenders that have stayed shuttered for much of the past month because of anti-government unrest.

S&P said on Thursday that it lowered its long-term issuer credit ratings on Bank Audi, Blom Bank and Bankmed by two notches to CCC, the fifth-lowest junk level, and kept them on “credit-watch negative.” Last month, the rating company placed Lebanon’s B- grade on negative watch for a possible downgrade.

“Lebanese banks are experiencing rising liquidity pressures,” S&P analysts Pierre Hollegien and Stephanie Mery said in a report. “The deposit erosion that started in first-half 2019 has recently intensified.”