Credit rating of IL&P lowered

CREDIT rating agency, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has lowered its rating on Irish Life & Permanent (IL&P) from an A-/A-1 level to BBB+/A-2, adding that the lender’s overall financial profile was “relatively poor”.

The rate cut was apparently brought about by IL&P’s “heavy reliance” on wholesale funding on the international money markets – the cost of such funding having increased sharply due to the global financial crisis.

S&P opined that there existed uncertainty about IL&P’s future direction, but added that the group’s outlook was stable. Such a feeling would seem to suggest that no further credit ratings cut on the group is due in the foreseeable future.