Moody's downgrades 16 banks

RBS, Barclays and HSBC were among 16 banks to be downgraded by the credit-rating agency Moody's yesterday. Barclays was downgraded by two notches and RBS and Lloyds TSB were lowered by one notch. The 15 banks downgraded were: Bank of America, Barclays, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland, BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, Société Générale and UBS. According to The Times, Lloyds TSB were downgraded separately by Moody's. HSBC was cut by one notch from Aa2 to Aa3 and RBS was downgraded to A3 from A2.  Barclays rating was also lowered from A3 to A1 and Lloyds from A3 to A2. The changes have been described as widely expected and Moody's are highlighting these banks links to the Eurozone problems. June 22, 2012