Moody’s downgrades Hong Kong over Snowden: Is ratings agency a political arm of US?

BREAKING: Our Man In Iceland: ‘Snowden was bound for Reykjavik’

21st Century Wire says…

Yesterday the world made some sense, but then you wake up today and realise how far-reaching the international white collar mafia truly is…
International financial ratings agency Moody’s is not known for being a political enforcement arm of Washington DC… until now that is.
In a move which sets a dangerous precedent of politicizing the world’s markets, Moody’s just made an aggressive move towards global financial warfare between Washington and China, and perhaps the rest of the world as well – by downgrading 9 major Hong Kong banks today.

That will wipe a lot off money off a lot of wealthy investors’ balance sheets.
So Hong Kong authorities would not to honor U.S. requests to arrest the fugitive Snowden, and then this happens.

Just a coincidence? Hardly. Ratings agents appear to have gotten the call from upstairs. This, it seems, is Washington’s last desperate effort to flush out its latest public relations nemesis – the 29 year old NSA whistleblower Ed Snowden.

Hong Kong’s economy is booming at present and its banks remain among the highest-rated banks globally, backed by solid levels of capitalization. Hong Kong’s financial wealth is historically linked to Great Britain, so this latest spat reinforces the narrative that the British-hatched Snowden crisis could be a behind the scenes battle between elites in the UK who want intervention in Syria and those in the US who don’t.


IMAGE: Snowden’s limited hangout in Hong Kong has come at a price to investors there.

The Snowden affair is being used to set a whole new raft of measures not seen before – which makes us us all the suspicious about the timing and the nature of of this latest international whistleblower – who, like Bradley Manning, hasn’t leaked anything that we didn’t already know.

Many already know that Moody’s and the rating gangs are corrupt and work hand in hand – as they did in the subprime mortgage theft, with their partners in crime at the major banks. What happens when international finance goes fully political? History tells us that a world war beckons.

Regardless, it’s just another reason for the rest of the world to lose faith in the a highly rigged global financial system run out of New York and London… 
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Rating Action: Moody’s takes rating actions on nine Hong Kong banks

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Global Credit Research – 24 Jun 2013

Hong Kong, June 24, 2013 - Moody’s Investors Service has changed the outlooks for the bank financial strength ratings (BFSRs)/Baseline Credit Assessments (BCAs) of eight Hong Kong banks to negative from stable, and one bank’s BFSR outlook to stable from positive.
In addition, Moody’s has lowered Wing Lung Bank’s BFSR by one notch, and affirmed all other ratings of the nine banks.
Moody’s has affirmed the deposit ratings of all the nine banks involved in this rating action. However, it has changed the outlooks on the deposit ratings for five of the nine banks concerned to negative from stable, while those for the other four banks are unchanged at stable. Please click here for a list of the affected credit ratings. http://www.moodys.com/viewresearchdoc.aspx?docid=PBC_155742. This list is an integral part of this press release and identifies each affected issuer.
RATINGS RATIONALE
The rating actions follow Moody’s decision to revise the outlook for Hong Kong’s banking system to negative from stable.
The change in the banking system outlook reflects the agency’s concerns regarding persistent negative real interest rates and potential property bubbles in Hong Kong, as well as Hong Kong banks’ growing exposures to Mainland China. These factors could result in adverse operating conditions for Hong Kong banks over the outlook horizon…

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