ICICI Bank Ltd.

Standard & Poor’s has lowered the short-term issue credit rating on ICICI Bank’s US$ 375 million Bank of America NA (BOA) backed US Commercial paper program to A-1 from A-1+.  The rating agency said that the downgrade was made due to the downgrade of the counterparty credit ratings of BOA to A+/Negative/A-1 from AA-/Negative/A-1+.

The rating agency said that the commercial paper program is supported by an irrevocable US$ 375 million direct pay letter of credit issued of BOA.  As the commercial paper holders will be paid directly by BOA on the maturity dates, they bear the credit risk of BOA and are rated equivalent to the short term counterparty credit rating of BOA. However, the ratings of all the other issues of ICICI Bank are not affected by this rating action. crackcrack