OREANDA-NEWS. Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has revised to Stable from Positive its outlooks on JSC Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus, JSC Savings Bank Belarusbank, Bank BelVEB OJSC, BPS-Sberbank, and Belagroprombank JSC.

At the same time, S&P affirms its long- and short-term counterparty credit ratings on Belarusbank, BelVEB, BPS-Sberbank, and Belagroprombank at 'B-/C' and on Development Bank of Belarus at 'B-/B'.

The outlook revisions follow S&P's similar action on Belarus, when the outlook on Belarus' sovereign credit rating was downgraded from Positive to Stable.

“We view the sovereign's creditworthiness as the key risk factor for Belarusian financial organizations because of their high operational, funding, and asset exposure to the predominantly state-owned Belarusian economy,” S&P analysts said.

“We believe a worsening current account deficit and rising exchange rate pressures highlight Belarus' vulnerability to external financing. These might hit Belarusian banks' financial profiles and increase their vulnerability to the challenging domestic operating environment,” S&P said.

The rating action on those five Belarusian banks goes to highlight the idea that they are either subsidiaries of large Russian financial groups, whose creditworthiness is substantially superior to that of Belarus; or government-related entities (GREs), which would receive timely and sufficient extraordinary support from the state.

The stable outlooks on Development Bank of Belarus, Belarusbank, BelVEB, BPS-Sberbank, and Belagroprombank mirror that on Belarus and reflect our view that there is no longer a one-in-three likelihood of an upgrade in the next 12 months.

Further rating actions on the banks could result from changes to their foreign currency sovereign credit ratings or transfer and convertibility assessment of Belarus.