Moody's downgrades three Lebanon banks

Moody's Investors Service said it downgraded the long-term deposit ratings of Bank Audi to Caa1 from B3, along with the same ratings on, BLOM Bank and Byblos Bank.

The agency also downgraded the banks' baseline credit assessments and adjusted baseline credit assessments to Caa1 from B3, long-term counterparty risk ratings to B3 from B2, counterparty risk assessments to B3(cr) from B2(cr) and BLOM Bank's long-term foreign-currency deposit certificates to Caa1 from B3.

The outlooks were changed to stable from negative.

The downgrades follow a similar recent downgrade of Lebanon, Moody's explained.

The government's weakened creditworthiness weighs on the credit profile of the three banks given the high interlinkages between their balance sheets and sovereign credit risk, the agency said.

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