Revision of outlook to Negative of Bank by Fitch

UNOFFICIAL TRANSLATION

14.04.2020 - Report 15/2020: Revision of outlook to Negative and affirmation of the ratings of Bank Pekao S.A. by rating agency Fitch Ratings 

Bank Polska Kasa Opieki Spółka Akcyjna (the "Bank") informs that on 14 April 2020 rating agency Fitch Ratings (the "Fitch") informed the Bank, in the light of the outbreak of COVID-19  pandemic, that it has revised the outlook for the Bank's Long-term IDR and National Long-Term Rating from "Stable" to "Negative" and has affirmed the ratings of the Bank.

The ratings for the Bank are as follows:

Long-term IDR: "BBB+"; Outlook: "Negative";

Short-term IDR: "F2";

Viability Rating (VR): "bbb+";

Support Rating: "5";

Support Rating Floor: "No Floor".

National Long-Term Rating: assigned at "AA(pol)", Outlook: "Negative";

National Short-Term Rating: assigned at "F1+(pol)".

According to the rationale provided by Fitch, in the light of the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, financial and business conditions in Poland have worsened. On March 30, 2020, as a result of revision of the outlook of the operating environment for Polish banks from "Stable" to "Negative", Fitch revised the sector outlook for Polish banks from "Stable" to "Negative", affirming sector rating at "bbb+".

Fitch highlights that Pekao enters the economic downturn from a position of relative strength, given its strong domestic retail and corporate franchise, well diversified credit exposures, solid capitalisation and strong deposit-driven funding and liquidity. Sizeable CET1 capital buffers above revised regulatory minimums provide sizeable loss absorption capacity of around 7% of total gross loans compared with an average cost of risk of around 40bp over the last 5 years.

The bank's loan book is well diversified and exposure to more vulnerable products/customer segments is low.

Legal basis: Article 17 (1) of MAR - inside information