S&P Global upgrades credit ratings on 10 Indian financial institutions

New Delhi, Aug 16 (IANS) In yet another significant development, the S&P Global Ratings has upgraded long-term issuer credit ratings on seven Indian banks and three non-banking financial companies (NBFCs).

The banks are State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Union Bank of India, Indian Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank and the NBFCs are Bajaj Finance, Tata Capital and L&T Finance.

The ratings of the 10 financial institutions have been upgraded from “BBB-/Positive/A-3” to “BBB/Stable/A-2”.

The action comes after the global ratings agency raised sovereign credit rating on India. This marks the country’s first sovereign upgrade by S&P in 18 years, the previous one being in 2007 when India was elevated to investment grade at BBB-. In May 2024, the agency revised its outlook on India from ‘Stable’ to ‘Positive’.

India’s financial institutions will continue to benefit from the country’s strong economic growth momentum, according to S&P Global. It expects India’s banks to maintain adequate asset quality, good profitability, and enhanced capitalisation over the next 12-24 months. This is despite some pockets of stress.

Along with raising the long-term issuer credit ratings of the 10 aforementioned financial institutions, S&P Global Ratings also revised upward its assessment of the stand-alone credit profiles (SACP) of seven of these entities – SBI, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Union Bank of India, Indian Bank, Tata Capital and L&T Finance.

The ratings on many Indian financial institutions are capped by our sovereign rating on India. This is due to the direct and indirect influence that the sovereign has on financial institutions operating in the country, S&P said.

On Thursday, S&P Global Ratings had also raised credit ratings on Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd. (ONGC), Power Grid Corp. of India Ltd., NTPC Ltd., and Tata Power Co. Ltd. to 'BBB' from ‘BBB-' with outlooks as stable.

--IANS

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