Standard & Poor's Ratings Services on March 30 raisedits global scale ratings on BancaMifel SA Institución de Banca Múltiple to BB from BB- and itslong-term national scale counterparty credit ratings to mxA from mxBBB+.
The bank's short-term national scale counterparty creditrating was affirmed at mxA-2, and the outlook remains stable.
The upgrades reflect Banca Mifel's improved risk-adjustedcapitalization, which S&P now projects to be 7.5% on average for the nexttwo years. This ratio reflects the 800 million Mexican pesos from AdventInternational in 2015, as well as the rating agency's expectation that thelender's stronger internal capital generation will compensate for growth inrisk-weighted assets during the next two years.
Consequently, S&P revised its capital and earningsassessment on the bank to adequate from moderate, and its stand-alone credit profileto "bb" from "bb-."
However, the agency noted that it could downgrade the bankif it uses the capital injection sooner than expected, which would lead tohigher-than-expected loan portfolio growth that is not compensated withinternal capital generation.
S&P Ratings andGlobal Market Intelligence are owned by McGraw Hill Financial Inc.
As of March 30, US$1was equivalent to 17.18 Mexican pesos.