Moody's upgrade for six building societies

Six of Britain's top building societies were today given a major vote of confidence by credit ratings agency Moody's as it upgraded their status as standalone banks.

But Moody's said its longer-term review of the debt and deposit ratings of 14 UK banks and building societies launched in May would not now be completed until late September when the Independent Commission on Banking has reported.

The standalone ratings of Nationwide, Yorkshire, and Principality have been upgraded by two notches. Coventry's standalone rating has been upgraded by one notch.

"Today's upgrade of four building societies' financial strength reflects their performance since the crisis and our expectations regarding their future performance," said Marjan Riggi, a Moody's vice president and senior credit officer.

"Our assessment recognises that the UK economy is slowly recovering and that broader banking and regulatory reforms are gradually taking shape."

Moody's said that the performance track record of the four during the past two years and by Newcastle and Nottingham, which have been upgraded from negative to stable, has shown gradual improvement combined with better underwriting standards.

The four societies had in some cases shown improvements in risk-management controls.