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Trondheim, 26. juni 2003.
FITCH AFFIRMS LONG-TERM RATING OF SPAREBANKEN MIDT-NORGE
Fitch Ratings, London, 26 June 2003: Fitch Ratings, the international rating agency, has affirmed the ratings of Norway's Sparebanken Midt-Norge (SMN) as follows: Long-term 'A-' (A minus), Short-term 'F2' and Individual 'B/C'. The Support ratings of '4' also remain unchanged. The rating Outlook for the bank is Stable.
Despite a difficult year in 2002 when the bank was hit by losses in the holding company of the SpareBank 1 Alliance and by exposure to a forfeiting company suspected of fraud, and further difficulties reported by the bank this month in connection with a large problem exposure to a company in the fish farming industry, its core business has performed solidly. Fitch will be watching carefully for signs of further credit deterioration in the bank's portfolio. Nevertheless, at this stage we accept the bank's assurances that the level of provisioning which may be required against the portfolio and against this credit in particular, during the remainder of this year, is within a level which the bank can support from current profits. The bank's overall exposure to the troubled fish farming sector is modest and we are satisfied with the quality and sectoral diversity of the rest of the credit portfolio. Fitch also takes comfort from the strength of the bank's capital base, which gave a core capital ratio of 8 % at end-March 2003.
The rating reports for the bank can be found on the agency's subscription web site, www.fitchresearch.com or from the London ratings desk, (Tel: +44 (0)20 7417 6300 / Email: ratingsdesk@fitchratings.com.
CONTACT: Andrew Lewis, Alison Leveridge; London, Tel: +44 (0) 20 7417 4222
Fitch Ratings's Support and Individual Ratings for Banks
Fitch's Individual ratings assess how a bank would be viewed if it were entirely independent and could not rely on external support. Its Support ratings deal with the question of whether a bank would receive support from its owners or from the state if it were to get into difficulty. These ratings are not debt ratings but rather, respectively, an assessment of the intrinsic strength of a bank and of any level of outside support that may, or may not, be available to it.