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Moody's acts on 5 Tunisian banks

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Moody's acts on 5 Tunisian banks

Moody's on March 16 took actions on Tunisia-based Arab Tunisian Bank, Banque Internationale Arabe de Tunisie SA, Banque de Tunisie SA, Société Tunisienne de Banque, and Amen Bank.

All five banks' long-term foreign-currency deposit ratings were downgraded to B3 from B2, as were the long-term local-currency deposit ratings of Société Tunisienne de Banque. Arab Bank Group unit Arab Tunisian Bank, Banque de Tunisie and Banque Internationale Arabe de Tunisie had their long-term local-currency deposit ratings downgraded to B2 from B1, while Amen Bank's long-term local-currency deposit rating was affirmed at B2.

The outlooks on all five banks' long-term deposit ratings were revised to stable from negative.

Arab Tunisian Bank's baseline credit assessment was downgraded to "b3" from "b2", its adjusted baseline credit assessment to "b2" from "b1" and its long-term counterparty risk assessment to B1(cr) from Ba3(cr).

Banque de Tunisie's baseline and adjusted baseline credit assessments were downgraded to "b3" from "b2", and its long-term counterparty risk assessment was downgraded to B2(cr) from B1(cr).

The long-term counterparty risk assessments of Amen Bank, Banque Internationale Arabe de Tunisie and Société Tunisienne de Banque were downgraded to B2(cr) from B1(cr), and their baseline and adjusted baseline credit assessments were affirmed at "caa1", "b3" and "caa3", respectively.

All five banks' short-term deposit ratings were affirmed at Not-Prime and their short-term counterparty risk assessments at NP(cr).

The ratings action comes in the wake of Moody's lowering the long-term issuer rating on Tunisia to B2 from B1, citing continued deterioration in the country's fiscal strength and wide external imbalances.