Moody’s has cut the credit ratings of the major players in the banking markets in Germany and Austria. Six German and three Austrian banks, including Erste Group, UniCredit Bank Austria and Raiffeisen Bank International, mothers of the Czech banks, were listed. The downgrade indicates the ratings agency believes Germany would be hit if the euro crisis turned into a catastrophe, writes the BBC correspondent Stephen Evans. The ratings agency explained that the Austrian banks were vulnerable to conditions in CEE and both the German and Austrian banks had a limited capacity to absorb the crisis.
