After the recent cut in Italy's sovereign rating (from BBB to BBB-), Standard & Poor's also changed its ratings on banks, since, as the agency itself explains, according to its criteria, "the rating of sovereign debt constitutes an upper limit in assigning ratings” to individual financial companies.
Therefore the rating of the two main Italian banks, Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo, was downgraded by the US rating agency to BBB- from BBB. Even Mediobanca's rating now passes to BBB- from BBB, while Ubi Banca's rating remains BBB- with a negative outlook, Banca Popolare di Milano remains B+ and Popolare Emilia Romagna is reduced to BB-.
