OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings has affirmed HSBC France's Long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at 'AA-' with a Stable Outlook and its Viability Rating (VR) at 'bbb+'. A full list of rating actions is available at the end of this rating action commentary.

KEY RATING DRIVERS
IDRS AND SENIOR DEBT RATINGS
HSBC France's IDRs are equalised with those of the bank's ultimate parent, HSBC Holdings plc (HSBC; AA-/Stable), reflecting HSBC France's role in the HSBC group. HSBC France is a strategic European hub for the group, as it is the trading and market-making platform for euro-denominated sovereign bonds and interest rate derivatives. Fitch believes that there would be an extremely high probability that HSBC would support HSBC France, through HSBC Bank plc (AA-/Stable), its direct parent, if required. The Stable Outlook reflects that on HSBC.

HSBC France is fully owned by HSBC, and a sale is deemed highly unlikely. The French bank is not only the hub for euro-denominated sovereign bonds and interest rate derivatives but also the group's banking platform for large French corporate clients. HSBC France is fully integrated in the group's risk management, strategic direction, business model, funding and liquidity policies. In Fitch's opinion, a default of HSBC France would have significant reputational issues for HSBC

VR
HSBC France's VR reflects the bank's specific business mix, which is driven by its role within the HSBC group, and its weak earnings generation, which are the two key rating drivers. In addition, the rating reflects the bank's moderate risk appetite, adequate asset quality, satisfactory capitalisation and healthy liquidity and funding profile.

The bank's company profile is highly geared toward capital-market related activities compared with traditional retail and commercial banking, exposing it to potential market risks relative to peers. However, it benefits from being part of the HSBC group, which overall has a robust franchise, essentially via HSBC France, in euro-denominated sovereign bonds and interest rate derivatives businesses. The strategic integration of HSBC France into the group means that cross-selling is a key focus, and the bank's hence wide product offering for larger SMEs and large corporates gives it a competitive advantage.

Nevertheless, a large part of HSBC France's balance sheet relates to trading and market-making activities. Market risks appear well-managed, and a reduced risk appetite in recent years has translated into lower value-at-risk numbers, which are at the lower end of global trading and universal banks' metrics but higher than at traditional retail and commercial banks.

The business mix makes the bank vulnerable to volatile capital markets and trading-related revenues. This is not yet offset by slowly growing retail banking activities, where profitability is still weak. The cost efficiency of its branch network is weaker than at other French retail banks. The bank is addressing the profitability of its retail banking operations, both by focusing on its wealthier customers and by optimising the cost base. Overall profitability suffers from a fairly high cost base and is a key rating weakness.

HSBC France's asset quality is adequate, benefiting from a large - around half of lending - low- risk housing loan portfolio. SMEs and corporate lending is of adequate quality, although it exposes the bank to concentration risk on some leading French corporates. Limits are high although outstanding loans are usually lower. Fitch expects loan impairment charges to remain stable, helped by a growing low-risk housing loan portfolio and a sound quality corporate loan book of larger, internationally active SMEs and leading French companies.

The bank's risk-weighted capital ratios are solid with a fully-loaded common equity Tier 1 Basel 3 ratio of 14.5% at end-June 2015. However, this needs to be put into the context of the bank's higher exposure to market risk than traditional retail and commercial banks. Leverage is improving as a consequence of balance-sheet deleveraging and trade compression, but is exposed to volatility from interest rates on marked to market positions, although partly offset by netting.

The bank's funding profile benefits from customer lending being entirely funded by customer deposits. Fitch considers that liquidity is conservatively managed. HSBC France benefits from a strong liquidity buffer that covers short-term wholesale funding.

RATING SENSITIVITIES
IDRS AND SENIOR DEBT RATINGS
HSBC France's IDRs and senior debt ratings would be expected to move in line with those of HSBC. HSBC France's IDRs could be notched down if Fitch considers that its role in the group is likely to change. The ratings are also sensitive to evolving regulations, in particular on resolution, potentially leading to changes in the group's legal structure. These could lead to hurdles to capital or liquidity flows across the group.

VR
HSBC France's VR would benefit from stronger profitability, potentially driven by an improvement in the bank's retail franchise, resulting in a more balanced business profile and lower reliance on potentially volatile capital-market revenues. A material improvement of the cost-to-income ratio would be positive for the VR. A marked deterioration in capital ratios or in asset quality would affect the VR.

The rating actions are as follows:

Long-term IDR affirmed at 'AA-'; Outlook Stable
Short-term IDR affirmed at 'F1+'
Viability Rating: affirmed at 'bbb+'
Support Rating: affirmed at '1'
Senior unsecured notes: affirmed at 'AA-'
Commercial paper: affirmed at 'F1+'
Market-linked securities: affirmed at 'AA-emr'
Short-term debt affirmed at 'F1+'.