Fitch puts nine banks on watch

Fitch Ratings said it placed the ratings of nine U.S. banking companies and their bank subsidiaries on Rating Watch negative, including BB&T Corp., Discover Financial Services Inc., Fifth Third Bancorp, KeyCorp, M&T Bank Corp., Popular, Inc., Regions Financial Corp., SunTrust Banks Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co.

The Rating Watch extends to all ratings of the companies listed above and their subsidiaries with the exception of the support ratings and support floors for all entities as well as the short-term ratings of BB&T and Wells Fargo.

The rating action reflects Fitch's view that these institutions show an incrementally higher level of vulnerability to the credit deterioration that the agency expects to continue across virtually all loan categories. This is anticipated to place additional stress on earnings, as provision requirements are likely to remain elevated over the intermediate term.

With that said, Fitch expects that the majority of the downgrades will be limited to one notch.

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