Moody’s downgrades eight Brazilian banks

Moody’s Investor Service downgraded eight Brazilian banks on June 27 in what is described as a technical adjustment following a classification revision that began in February. According to Moody’s a new classification was necessary because the institutions had a higher rating than the Brazilian government. The banks affected are Banco do Brasil, Safra, Santander, HSBC, Bradesco, Itaú, Itaú BBA and Votorantim. The reasoning is that as the banks all have Brazilian government debt bonds (“Dívida Pública Federal”) in their portfolios, their exposure to risk had to be altered.

“Our analysis indicates that there is little or no reason to believe that these banks will be insulated from a government debt crisis,” says the report from Moody”s.

A similar revision has occurred in other countries where banks had better ratings than their governments.