Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that it had revised the outlooks on its long-term counterparty credit ratings on 11 financial institutions to negative from stable.

At the same time, the ratings agency affirmed its long-term and short-term counterparty credit ratings as well as its issue ratings on all these financial institutions. S&P's banking industry country risk assessment (BICRA) score on India, however, remains unchanged at 5.

The 11 financial institutions are:

• Axis Bank Ltd. (BBB-/Negative/A-3)
• Bank of India (BBB-/Negative/A-3)
• HDFC Bank Ltd. (BBB-/Negative/A-3)
• ICICI Bank Ltd. (foreign currency: BBB-/Negative/A-3)
• IDBI Bank Ltd. (foreign currency: BBB-/Negative/A-3)
• Indian Overseas Bank (BBB-/Negative/A-3)
• Indian Bank (BBB-/Negative/A-3)
• Infrastructure Development Finance Company Ltd. (BBB-/Negative/A-3)
• State Bank of India (BBB-/Negative/A-3)
• Syndicate Bank (BBB-/Negative/A-3)
• Union Bank of India (BBB-/Negative/A-3)

The outlook revision follows a similar cut in the sovereign credit rating on India (BBB-/Negative/A-3) (See: S&P downgrades India's long-term credit rating to negative).http://www.domain-b.com/economy/general/20120425_credit_rating.html

The negative outlooks on the 11 financial institutions reflect the outlook on the sovereign credit rating on India.

S&P said in a statement, "We could lower the ratings on these financial institutions if: (1) we lower the sovereign rating; or (2) the stand-alone credit profiles of these financial institutions deteriorate sharply; we believe that such deterioration is unlikely in most cases. We could revise the outlook to stable if we take a similar action on the sovereign rating."