S&P lowers Goldman Sachs

Standard & Poor's said it lowered its long- and short-term counterparty credit ratings on Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. to A/A-1 from AA-/A-1+ and the ratings on its hybrid capital issues to BBB from A.

The outlook is negative.

The downgrade was made in conjunction with S&P's portfolio review of major financial institutions and reflects its more negative view of the significant pressure on large, complex financial institutions' future performance due to increasing industry risk and the deepening economic slowdown. The agency also believes the cyclical downturn in Goldman Sachs' core investment banking, trading and asset-management businesses could well be far more pronounced and extended than previously assumed.

S&P said it continues to believe that Goldman Sachs' credit profile benefits from the company's leading market positions in securities trading, investment banking, merchant banking, institutional asset management and prime brokerage. The ratings also reflect extraordinary external support from the U.S. government for highly systemically important financial institutions.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.