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\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \n \t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Overview — On Oct. 12, 2012, we lowered the long-term foreign currency sovereign rating on the Republic of South Africa to ‘BBB’ from ‘BBB+’ and the long-term local currency rating to ‘A-‘ from ‘A’. We also lowered the short-term local currency rating to ‘A-2’ from ‘A-1’ and affirmed the short-term foreign currency rating at ‘A-2’. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-15616","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15616\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Overview\n -- On Oct. 12, 2012, we lowered the long-term foreign currency sovereign \nrating on the Republic of South Africa to 'BBB' from 'BBB+' and the long-term \nlocal currency rating to 'A-' from 'A'. We also lowered the short-term local \ncurrency rating to 'A-2' from 'A-1' and affirmed the short-term foreign \ncurrency rating at 'A-2'. The outlook remains negative. \n -- In our view, the sovereign's capacity to provide extraordinary support \nto Standard Bank of South Africa Ltd. (SBSA) in case of need has now \ndiminished. Before the sovereign downgrade, sovereign support had lifted the \nrating on the bank one notch above its stand-alone credit profile.\n -- We are therefore lowering our unsolicited long-term issuer credit \nrating on SBSA to 'BBB' from 'BBB+' and affirming the 'A-2' short-term rating. \n -- The outlook remains negative, reflecting that on the Republic of South \nAfrica.\nRating Action\nOn Oct. 16, 2012, Standard Poor's Ratings Services lowered the unsolicited \nlong-term issuer credit rating of Standard Bank of South Africa Ltd (SBSA) to \n'BBB' from 'BBB+' and affirmed its 'A-2' short-term rating. The outlook \nremains negative.\nRationale\nThe rating action on SBSA follows the lowering of the ratings of South Africa. \nWe have removed the one notch of uplift above the bank's stand-alone credit \nprofile (SACP) of 'bbb', which had stemmed from the likelihood of \nextraordinary support from the sovereign in case of need. This follows our \ndowngrade of South Africa (see \"South Africa FC Long-Term Rating Lowered To \n'BBB'; LC Ratings Lowered To 'A-\/A-2'; Outlook Remains Negative,\" published on \nRatingsDirect on Oct. 12, 2012). The removal of sovereign support reflects our \nopinion of the reduced capacity of the South African government to provide \nextraordinary support to banks in case of need. \n\nThe lowering of the sovereign ratings reflects our opinion that strikes in \nSouth Africa's mining sector will likely feed into the political debate in the \nrun-up to the 2014 elections, which may increase uncertainties related to the \nAfrican National Congress' future policy framework. In our opinion, underlying \nsocial tensions in South Africa will increase spending pressures and reduce \nfiscal flexibility for the government. Due to production losses, we now expect \nGDP growth to soften to not more than 2.5% in 2012 and the current account \ndeficit to increase to at least 5.1% of GDP.\n\nThe ratings on SBSA reflect its 'bbb' anchor, as well as its \"strong\" business \nposition, \"moderate\" capital and earnings, \"adequate\" risk position, \"average\" \nfunding, and \"adequate\" liquidity, as our criteria define these terms. The \nratings reflect the bank's SACP of 'bbb', despite the bank's \"high systemic \nimportance\" and the South African government's \"supportive\" stance toward the \ndomestic banking sector.\n\nOutlook\nThe negative outlook reflects that on South Africa. We would lower the ratings \non SBSA in the event of a sovereign downgrade. Furthermore, heightened \neconomic risk--either through lower domestic economic growth or increasing \npolitical risks--or worsening industry risks through changing competitive \ndynamics or higher funding and liquidity risks could result in a downward \nrevision of our assessment of the bank's SACP and a ratings downgrade.\n\nWe could also lower the ratings on SBSA if the bank's capitalization, measured \nby Standard Poor's risk-adjusted capital ratio before adjustments, were to \ndeteriorate to below 5%, or if the bank's asset quality were to deteriorate \nsignificantly. As we forecast modest loan growth, slow improvement in asset \nquality, and stable capital ratios, we consider further SACP movement unlikely \nin the medium term.\n\nA revision of the outlook on the sovereign to stable would trigger an outlook \nrevision on SBSA to stable, provided the bank's financial and business \nprofiles also remained stable.\n\n\nRatings Score Snapshot\nIssuer Credit Rating BBB\/Negative\/A-2\n\nSACP bbb\n Anchor bbb \n Business Position Strong (+1)\n Capital and Earnings Moderate (-1)\n Risk Position Adequate (0)\n Funding and Liquidity Average and Adequate (0)\n\nSupport 0\n GRE Support 0\n Group Support 0\n Sovereign Support 0\n\nAdditional Factors 0\n\nRelated Criteria And Research\nAll articles listed below are available on RatingsDirect on the Global Credit \nPortal, unless otherwise stated. \n -- Banks: Rating Methodology And Assumptions, Nov. 9, 2011\n -- Bank Capital Methodology And Assumptions, Dec. 6, 2010\n -- Group Rating Methodology And Assumptions, Nov. 9, 2011\n -- Bank Hybrid Capital Methodology And Assumptions, Nov. 1, 2011\nRatings List\nDowngraded; Ratings Affirmed\n To From\nStandard Bank of South Africa Ltd. (Unsolicited Ratings)\n Counterparty Credit Rating BBB\/Negative\/A-2 BBB+\/Negative\/A-2\n\n\nThis unsolicited rating(s) was initiated by Standard Poor's. It may be based \nsolely on publicly available information and may or may not involve the \nparticipation of the issuer. Standard Poor's has used information from \nsources believed to be reliable based on standards established in our Credit \nRatings Information and Data Policy but does not guarantee the accuracy, \nadequacy, or completeness of any information used.\n\nComplete ratings information is available to subscribers of RatingsDirect on \nthe Global Credit Portal at www.globalcreditportal.com. All ratings affected \nby this rating action can be found on Standard Poor's public Web site at \nwww.standardandpoors.com. Use the Ratings search box located in the left \ncolumn.<\/pre>\n