SINGAPORE (S&P Global Ratings) March 17, 2018--S&P Global Ratings Friday said
that it raised its issue ratings on the hybrid capital instruments issued by State Bank of India (BBB-/Stable/A-3).
"We believe the default risk on these instruments is lower than we previously considered, given recent pre-emptive government support for additional tier-1 capital (AT1) bonds issued by public sector banks. Therefore, we raised our issue ratings on SBI's Basel III compliant debt programs. The one notch upgrade results in SBI's AT1 and Tier-2 being rated 'BB-' and 'BB+', respectively," S & P Global Ratings said.
Indian public sector banks hold 70 per cent of market share and are viewed as a block
by the market as well as the government.
-rmc//