Moody’s downgrades 12 British banks
Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland were among 12 UK banks downgraded by Moody’s on Friday.
The rating agency Moody’s said it had downgraded ratings for a dozen British financial institutions on Friday.
The BBC reports that these include the state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds TSB, along with Nationwide and Santander UK.
More: Meet Dexia, the Bear Sterns of 2011. But this time it's worse.
Moody's said the move comes amid doubts the British government would support some firms if they ran into trouble.
The agency said in a statement:
Moody's Investors Service has today downgraded the senior debt and deposit ratings of 12 UK financial institutions and confirmed the ratings of one institution.
The downgrades have been caused by Moody's reassessment of the support environment in the UK which has resulted in the removal of systemic support for seven smaller institutions and the reduction of systemic support… for five larger, more systemically important financial institutions.
The Financial Times said the decision, made just before the start of trade, sent banking stocks falling to the bottom of the FTSE 100.
(Read more on GlobalPost: Bank of England to inject $116b into economy)
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