S&P affirms Banca Intesa

Standard & Poor's said it affirmed its AA-/A-1+ long- and short-term counterparty credit ratings on Banca Intesa SpA, now renamed Intesa Sanpaolo SpA.

The outlook is stable.

At the same time, the AA-/A-1+ long- and short-term counterparty credit ratings on Sanpaolo IMI SpA were withdrawn. The ratings and outlooks on Banca IMI SpA, Banca OPI SpA, Banca Fideuram and Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna SpA, now subsidiaries of Intesa Sanpaolo, remain unchanged at AA-/stable/A-1+.

The actions follow the merger of Intesa with Sanpaolo and reflect the enlarged bank's leading domestic franchise in most banking segments, together with strong profitability and capitalization, the agency said.

Compared with most international peers, however, the new banking group has an essentially domestic business profile, with slightly weaker asset quality, S&P added.

The stable outlook reflects the agency's expectation that Intesa Sanpaolo's strong market positioning in the domestic retail business should enable it to maintain high earnings over the medium term. S&P also said it expects management to concentrate on the integration of the two banking groups.

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