Fitch Downgrades 3 Kenyan Banks to 'B' on Sovereign Downgrade

By Fitch Ratings Published: December 21, 2022 7:01 PM

Fitch Ratings has downgraded three Kenyan commercial banks’ and two bank holding companies’ (BHCs) Long-Term Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) to ‘B’ from ‘B+’. The Outlooks are Stable. A full list of rating actions is below.

The rating actions follow the downgrade of Kenya’s Long-Term IDRs to ‘B’ from ‘B+’ on 14 December 2022 (see “Fitch Downgrades Kenya to ‘B’; Outlook Stable” at www.fitchratings.com).

The downgrades of the IDRs of KCB Group PLC, KCB Bank Kenya Limited, NCBA Group PLC and NCBA Bank Kenya Plc are driven by the downgrade of their Viability Ratings (VRs) to ‘b’ from ‘b+’, which reflects our view that the issuers’ standalone credit profiles are closely linked to that of the sovereign. The downgrade of KCB Bank Kenya Limited and NCBA Bank Kenya Plc, both domestic systemically important banks, is also driven by the downgrade of their Government Support Ratings (GSRs) to ‘b’ from ‘b+’ due to the Kenyan authorities’ weaker ability to provide support in case of need.

The downgrade of the IDRs of Stanbic Bank Kenya Limited (SBK) is driven by the downgrade of its Shareholder Support Rating (SSR) to ‘b’ from ‘b+’ as a result of the downgrade of Kenya’s Country Ceiling to ‘B’ from ‘B+’. SBK’s VR is affirmed at ‘b’.

The issuers’ National Ratings are unaffected by the rating actions and may be reviewed if our National Rating equivalency analysis results in different relative creditworthiness across Kenyan issuers.