WASHINGTON
Moody’s Investors Service announced Friday that it “lowered Greece’s local and foreign-currency bank deposit ceiling to Caa1 from Ba3.”
“The heightened uncertainty that accompanied the recent negotiations between the Greek government and its official creditors had an adverse impact on depositor confidence,” said the global credit rating agency in a written statement. “The risk of the government imposing deposit freezes or similar capital restrictions in order to preserve financial stability is no lower than the risk of the government defaulting on its own debt.”
Moody’s added that its estimate on private deposit outflows – since last December – had reached around 25 billion euros.
“Private sector deposits in the Greek banking system are now at their lowest point in 10 years,” it said.
The rating agency added that the ceiling change would have “no implications for Greece’s Caa1 sovereign rating, which is on review for downgrade since 6 February 2015.”
“The announced ceiling change will not have an impact on any bank rating in Greece because those ratings are below the new deposit ceiling of Caa1,” the agency added.
