OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings has affirmed the Long-term Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) and Support Ratings (SR) of Yapi Ve Bankasi (YKB), UniCredit Tiriac Bank S.A. (UCTB) and Yapi Kredi Finansal Kiralama A.S. (YKL), and revised the Outlooks on these entities to Stable from Negative. A full list of rating actions is at the end of this rating action commentary.

KEY RATING DRIVERS - IDRS AND SRs
The revision of the Outlooks on YKB and UCTB mirrors the rating actions on UniCredit S.p.A. (UC; BBB+/Stable/bbb+) on 1 April 2015 (see 'Fitch Takes Rating Actions on 4 Large Italian Banks' at www.fitchratings.com).

UCTB's and YKB's IDRs and SR reflect Fitch's view that they are strategically important subsidiaries for their ultimate parent, UC, and hence Fitch notches their Long-Term IDRs down once from that of UC. This view takes into account the continued high strategic importance of Turkey and the Central and Eastern Europe region for UC.

UC owns, via UniCredit Bank Austria AG (UCBA; A/Negative/bbb+), a 50.6% stake in UCTB and a 50% stake in YKB's holding company, which in turns holds an 82% stake in YKB. Although any support, should it be required, would likely flow through UCBA, at present UCTB's and YKB's IDRs and SR do not incorporate any potential support coming directly from UCBA. Fitch believes that the Austrian authorities would look to UniCredit to provide support to its subsidiaries directly before allowing any Austrian sovereign support to flow through to these entities.

YKL ratings are equalised with those of its majority owner, YKB. This reflects Fitch's view that YKL is a core, highly integrated subsidiary and YKB would have a high propensity to provide support should it be required.

YKL's ratings are driven by its close integration with YKB. The company shares the parent's branding, key risk assessment systems and customers, and YKL's board members are drawn from senior executives at YKB.

RATING SENSITIVITIES - IDRS, NATIONAL RATINGS AND SENIOR DEBT
The Stable Outlook on UCTB's and YKB's Long-term IDRs reflects that on the parent. Therefore any negative rating action on UC's IDR would be mirrored by the IDRs of all entities covered in this rating action.

YKB's Long-term IDR is capped by Turkey's Country Ceiling (BBB). Therefore, any downward revision of Turkey's Country Ceiling would result in a downgrade of YKB's Long-term IDR.

Positive rating action on UC could lead to similar rating action on UCTB, but would not lead to any upgrade of YKB's Long-term foreign currency IDR, given that the latter is capped by the Country Ceiling.

YKL's ratings are sensitive to (i) changes in the ratings of its parent, YKB; and (ii) changes in Fitch's view of the propensity of YKB to provide support to the subsidiary should it be required.

The rating actions are as follows:

UniCredit Tiriac Bank S.A.
Long-term foreign currency IDR: affirmed at 'BBB'; Outlook revised to Stable from Negative
Short-term foreign currency IDR: affirmed at 'F3'
Support Rating: affirmed at '2'
Viability Rating: unaffected

Yapi ve Kredi Bankasi A.S.
Long-term IDR affirmed at 'BBB'; Outlook revised to Stable from Negative
Short-term IDR affirmed at 'F3'
Local currency Long-term IDR affirmed at 'BBB'; Outlook revised to Stable from Negative
Local currency Short-term IDR affirmed at 'F3'
National Long Term Rating affirmed at 'AAA(tur)'; Outlook revised to Stable from Negative
Support Rating affirmed at '2'
Senior unsecured debt affirmed at 'BBB'
Subordinated notes affirmed at 'BBB-'
Viability Rating: unaffected

Yapi Kredi Finansal Kiralama A.O.
Long-term IDR affirmed at 'BBB'; Outlook revised to Stable from Negative
Short-term IDR affirmed at 'F3'
Local currency Long-term IDR affirmed at 'BBB'; Outlook revised to Stable from Negative
Local currency Short-term IDR affirmed at 'F3'
National Long-term Rating affirmed at 'AAA(tur)'; Outlook revised to Stable from Negative
Support Rating affirmed at '2'