COVID-19 PANDEMIC CAUSES FLOOD OF RATINGS DOWNGRADES

摘要

RATINGS AGENCY FITCH implemented 117 single or multi-notch downgrades of financial institutions between March and August this year, according to its Coronavirus Rating Action Tracker, demonstrating the scale of the impact the pandemic has had on the outlook for financial institutions, including banks and insurers, globally. In addition, there were 407 instances of institutions being given an affirmed negative outlook (an indication of the potential rating direction for an institution over the coming one to two years). Of these 524 instances, 378 related to banking institutions. The majority of the actions took place in April, with 59 out of 117 downgrades taking place and 246 negative outlooks being affirmed during that month.