Moody's on April 12 upgraded 's long-term deposit ratings toBa2 from Ba3 and its long-term senior debt ratings to Ba3 from B1.

The outlook on both ratings remains stable.

The rating agency also raised the Spanish bank's baselinecredit assessment and adjusted baseline credit assessment to b1 from b2, and itscounterparty risk assessment to Baa3(cr)/Prime-3(cr) from Ba1(cr)/Not-Prime(cr).

The agency attributed the upgrades to improvement in thebank's credit fundamentals, in particular with regard to asset risk andcapital. Moody's noted that the bank reduced its nonperforming loan ratio by22% year over year to 10.5% at the end of 2015, mainly due to asset disposals.