Moody's warns on banks

More European banks could see their credit ratings put on review or lowered, particularly if the effects of the crisis broaden…

More European banks could see their credit ratings put on review or lowered, particularly if the effects of the crisis broaden further, US credit rating agency Moody's said yesterday.

Moody's noted that French and German banks have higher combined exposure in the Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and South Korea than US banks, and said that in many cases banks have expanded in the region "more opportunistically, without due concern for an appropriate correlation between short-term returns and longer-term risks."