State Bank of India (SBI) on Thursday said the credit profile downgrade by the global rating agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) will have no impact on the bank's operations as the overall rating remains same.
"The standalone credit is a part of overall rating exercise," said A Krishna
Kumar, managing director and group executive (national banking), SBI. "The standalone credit profile (SACP) is an integral part of the issuer credit rating (ICR). In fact, the other components of issuer are the capital position, the earnings, liquidity position and so on and those remain strong."
"S&P reaffirmed SBI's ICR at BBB-/Negative/A-3, which is what it has been for quite some time now. The recent rating review will have absolutely no impact on the operations of the bank," he said.
S&P on Wednesday revised SACP of the bank downward by a notch to 'BBB-' on expected deterioration in asset quality.
SBI’s gross non-performing assets (NPA) ratio of 5% (on a standalone basis) as on June 30, 2012, is the highest among the Indian banks that S&P rates.
The bank said the asset quality is expected to get better in future because of various measures taken and also that they are in touch with rating agencies on the steps taken by the bank.
"We are in constant dialogue with S&P and other rating agencies and have shared all the initiatives taken by the banks," said Kumar.