MBank : rating affirmed by Standardard & Poor’s with a negative outlook

The Management Board of mBank S.A hereby informs that on February 3, 2016 Standard & Poor's Rating Services (S&P) affirmed ratings of mBank: long-term counterparty credit rating at 'BBB' and short-term counterparty credit at 'A2' and revised the rating outlook from stable to negative.
The revision of the outlook is driven by the review of economic and industry risk trends the Polish banking industry faces and the revision of S&P's opinion of country risk to the Polish banking sector to negative from stable. According to S&P Polish banks' capacity to absorb losses and withstand shocks may weaken over the next two years due to new bank levy, increased regulatory costs, and costs related to potential foreign-currency loan conversions.
The agency expressed the view, that in such circumstances mBank's earnings capacity could not be sufficient to counter a potentially weakening capacity of Commerzbank AG to provide support, if Commerzbank was downgraded.

S&P's scale of long-term ratings includes AAA, AA, A, BBB, BB, B, CCC, CC, R, SD and D, while the scale of short-term ratings includes A1, A2, A3, B, C, R, SD and D, which may be modified by the addition of a plus (+) or minus (-) sign to show relative standing within the major rating categories. The definitions of S&P ratings are published on its official website at: www.standardandpoors.com, along with ratings, criteria and methodology.