S&P lowers six Nigeria banks view to negative

Standard & Poor's said it revised the outlooks on six Nigerian financial institutions to negative from stable.

The negative outlooks were assigned to Access Bank plc, Ecobank Nigeria Ltd., First Bank of Nigeria Ltd., Guaranty Trust Bank plc, Stanbic IBTC Bank plc and Zenith Bank plc.

The B+ long-term and B short-term counterparty credit ratings on these banks also were affirmed.

The agency also said it lowered the Nigeria national scale long-term ratings on Access Bank, First Bank, Guaranty Trust, Stanbic and Zenith banks to ngA- from ngA, along with their short-term ratings to ngA-2 from ngA-1.

Ecobank does not have national scale ratings, S&P said.

The negative outlooks follow the recent revision of the outlook on Nigeria to negative from stable, S&P said.

Oil prices have fallen further since the last review of Nigeria in September 2015, the agency said.

Lower oil prices continue to have a negative impact on Nigeria's macroeconomic indicators and prospects for its GDP growth and current account, S&P said.

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