Leading Wall Street rating agency Standard & Poor's placed top German and French banks on its watch list Wednesday for possible downgrades, DPA reported.
The agency said that German lenders Deutsche Bank AG and Commerzbank AG and the French-based BNP Paribas SA, Credit Agricole SA and Societe Generale SA would be evaluated with a negative outlook for possible downgrade, with decisions to be announced within 90 days.
Italian lender UniCredit SpA was also put on S&P's CreditWatch list.
On Monday, S&P put all six of the eurozone's AAA-rated countries on the watch list. The outcome of the evaluation may depend on the EU's latest crisis summit, with leaders gathering Thursday and Friday in Brussels in hopes of forging solutions to the spreading debt crisis in the currency zone. Nine other eurozone countries with lower bond ratings are also formally warned of downgrades.
"We intend to resolve the CreditWatch placement on these banks soon after the resolution of the CreditWatch placement on the related sovereign," S&P said Wednesday.
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