New York Community Bancorp: rating agencies drive the point home

(Boursier.com) — New York Community Bancorp, the American regional bank, is holding up before the market on Wall Street following the recent plunge. However, Fitch Ratings has just downgraded its rating of the file to junk category, after a further rating downgrade from Moody’s Investors Service. The American financial institution had previously warned of significant weaknesses in its way of measuring loan risks. Fitch downgraded its long-term issuer default rating of the bank from ‘BBB-‘ to ‘BB+’, below investment grade. Moody’s, which had already downgraded the bank to speculative status last month, further lowered its issuer rating, from ‘Ba2’ to ‘B3’. The bank’s discovery of weaknesses prompted a reconsideration of NYCB’s controls over the adequacy of provisions, particularly with respect to its concentrated exposure in commercial real estate, according to Fitch.