Moody’s has shifted its outlook on four Lebanese banks to negative citing economic and political uncertainty in the region.
The credit rating agency says exposure to Syria and Egypt are vulnerabilities for the banks.
The changes affect the standalone bank financial strength ratings (BFSR) and global local-currency (GLC) deposit ratings of Bank Audi, Blom Bank, Bank of Beirut and Byblos Bank.
All have been shifted from negative to stable, a change that has also been made to their long term national-scale ratings (NSRs).
A note from Egyptian investment bank Beltone Financial said: "We do not see the outlook change by Moody’s as much of a surprise.
"The high liquidity in the banking sector should serve to allay some of these fears. We believe the current market prices are discounting these exposures to Syria and Egypt, as well as the macro slowdown in Lebanon, too harshly."
The situation provided investors with good entry points to take advantage, concluded Beltone's statement.
Short link: