(The following statement was released by the rating agency) Fitch Ratings-Hong Kong/Taipei-April 09: Fitch Ratings has assigned an expected 'A(EXP)' rating to Bank of China Limited's (BOC, A/Stable) proposed long-term senior unsecured notes, to be issued under its USD40 billion medium-term note (MTN) programme. The bank plans to issue various notes denominated in Hong Kong dollars, US dollars, Chinese yuan, euros and Australian dollars from its Hong Kong, Macau, Frankfurt, Luxembourg and Sydney branches, with fixed and floating rates. The proposed notes will be traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes. The final rating is contingent upon the receipt of final documents conforming to information already received. Fitch first rated BOC's MTN programme 'A'/'F1' on 9 December 2013, which was most recently affirmed on 18 January 2019. The programme's size was increased to USD40 billion, from USD30 billion, in April 2018 to meet the bank's funding needs. KEY RATING DRIVERS BOC's Hong Kong, Macau, Frankfurt, Luxembourg and Sydney branches are part of the same legal entity as BOC. Therefore, the proposed notes will represent BOC's direct, unconditional, unsecured and unsubordinated obligations and are rated in line with its Long-Term Issuer Default Rating, which is underpinned by the agency's expectations of an extremely high probability of support from the Chinese sovereign (A+/Stable) in the event of stress. RATING SENSITIVITIES Any change to the proposed notes' rating will be correlated directly with changes in BOC's Issuer Default Rating, which will in turn reflect any shift in the perceived willingness or ability of the government to support the bank in a full and timely manner.
While both criteria were used in the committee, only the Bank Rating criteria is relevant for this action. Contact: Primary Analyst Katie Chen Director +886 2 8175 7614 Fitch Australia Pty Ltd, Taiwan Branch Suite 1306, 13F No. 205, Dunhwa North Road Songshan District Taipei City, Taiwan 105 Secondary Analyst Grace Wu Senior Director +852 2263 9919 Committee Chairperson Tim Roche Senior Director +61 2 8256 0310 Date of Relevant Rating Committee: 17 January 2019 Media Relations: Yee Man Ko, Hong Kong, Tel: +852 2263 9953, Email: alanis.ko@thefitchgroup.com; Wai-Lun Wan, Hong Kong, Tel: +852 2263 9935, Email: wailun.wan@thefitchgroup.com. Additional information is available on www.fitchratings.com Applicable Criteria Bank Rating Criteria (pub. 12 Oct 2018) https://www.fitchratings.com/site/re/10044408 National Scale Ratings Criteria (pub. 18 Jul 2018) https://www.fitchratings.com/site/re/10038626 Additional Disclosures Solicitation Status https://www.fitchratings.com/site/pr/10068971#solicitation Endorsement Policy https://www.fitchratings.com/regulatory ALL FITCH CREDIT RATINGS ARE SUBJECT TO CERTAIN LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS. PLEASE READ THESE LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS BY FOLLOWING THIS LINK: HTTPS://WWW.FITCHRATINGS.COM/UNDERSTANDINGCREDITRATINGS. IN ADDITION, RATING DEFINITIONS AND THE TERMS OF USE OF SUCH RATINGS ARE AVAILABLE ON THE AGENCY'S PUBLIC WEB SITE AT WWW.FITCHRATINGS.COM. PUBLISHED RATINGS, CRITERIA, AND METHODOLOGIES ARE AVAILABLE FROM THIS SITE AT ALL TIMES. 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