The outlook on ASB Bank’s debt rating was lowered by Fitch Ratings following a damning report into the culture and governance of its parent Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA).
The outlook on ASB’s AA- long-term foreign and local currency debt ratings was cut to ‘negative’ from ‘stable’ after the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (Apra) report released late last month criticised CBA for a myriad of issues ranging from executive pay to failing to respond to customer complaints. It made 35 recommendations.
Fitch senior director Tim Roche told BusinessDesk there was a risk that CBA’s management might take its eye off the ball in terms of day-to-day financial performance of the bank, as it concentrated on sorting out shortcomings in operational controls and governance brought up in the Apra investigation.
“A likely cost increase might manifest in a weaker financial profile… There is also a risk that ongoing inquiries into the sector, including the Royal Commission, identify additional shortcomings,” Roche said.
This could leave CBA “more susceptible than its peers to a weaker operating environment”.
Fitch revised the outlook on CBA and ASB’s “long-term issuer default rating” (a measure of the likelihood an institution can repay its creditors) from stable to negative. That means that the rating agency is considering downgrading the banks’ credit ratings in the future.
Roche argues that because ASB Bank would rely on its parent to bail it out if it got into difficulties, if CBA is deemed less able to pay its debts, then ASB’s creditworthiness is also impacted. But the same could happen the other way around too.
“If ASB’s parent remediates its operations according to the plan in the report, that should strengthen the rating, and we would expect to look to revise it back to stable.”
