S&P ups three Irish banks

S&P said it raised its ratings on AIB Group plc, Bank of Ireland Group plc, and Permanent TSB Group Holdings plc and their main operating banks.

The agency upgraded its ratings for AIB and Allied Irish Banks plc to BBB from BBB- and A from A-. S&P also raised all their debt ratings, except for Allied Irish Bank’s legacy subordinated notes.

S&P boosted its ratings for Bank of Ireland Group and Bank of Ireland to BBB from BBB- and A from A- and raised all issue ratings on all of the bank's subordinated and hybrid instruments, including senior non-preferred.

Finally, the agency raised its ratings for Permanent TSB Group Holdings to BB+ from BB- and Permanent TSB plc to BBB+ from BBB. S&P concurrently hiked all issue ratings on all the bank's subordinated and hybrid instruments, including senior non-preferred.

“We expect Ireland to enjoy domestic economic growth of about 2% in 2023–outperforming many countries in the eurozone–as well as low unemployment, which, in our view, will bolster the Irish banking sector.

We also anticipate that Irish banks will be broadly on track to reduce non-performing loans to their publicly stated target levels by end-2023, and keep asset quality metrics around those levels,” S&P said in a press release.

The outlook for all six issuers is stable.

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