Moody's concerns overblown, misplaced: SBI

Country's largest bank SBI today dismissed the concerns raised by Moody's while downgrading its debt rating, saying that the issues cited by the global credit ratings agency are "overblown and misplaced".

"We had explained our views to Moody’s, allaying their concerns on debts, deposits as well as recapitalisation, but still they went ahead with downgrade. We believe Moody’s is overly concerned, and that is completely misplaced," SBI MD and CFO Arundhati Bhattacharya said.

At a press conference this evening attended by all the four Managing Directors of the bank, she said: "What Moody’s feels is their view and we don’t subscribe to that. SBI is and will remain the banking champion of the nation. We have no difficulty in raising deposits with our nationwide presence nor do we have any means in raising funds.

"We still have the highest rating amongst the public sector banks when it comes to bank’s financial stability rating (BFSR) from Moody’s."

The agency yesterday downgraded the senior unsecured debt and local currency deposit rating of SBI by a notch to 'Baa3' from 'Baa2', citing asset quality and recapitalisation concerns.

It said: "A combination of increasing pressure on credit fundamentals and ongoing reliance on fiscally constrained government to maintain capital at levels desired by regulators argue for appropriateness of supported debt and deposit ratings at a level no higher than the sovereign," it said.

Discounting the agency’s fears on the bank’s ability to recapitalised, Bhattacharya said: "We don’t believe that Moody’s concern on recapitalisation is right. They have their views, but that is not our views. We do believe that they are not completely right in its rating action. We have many ways to raise capital including bringing the government stake down from 62.3 per cent now to raise capital."