S&P lowers Bancorp to stable

Standard & Poor’s said it revised the outlook on BancorpSouth Inc. to stable from positive, along with its subsidiary, BancorpSouth Bank.

The agency also said it affirmed the BBB- long-term issuer credit rating on BancorpSouth and BBB long-term and A-2 short-term issuer credit ratings on BancorpSouth Bank.

The outlook revision follows the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s identification of weaknesses with BancorpSouth’s Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money-laundering procedures, S&P said.

As a result, the company extended the expiration date of its merger agreements with Ouachita Bancshares Inc. and Central Community Corp. to June 30, 2015, the agency said.

In September, BancorpSouth entered into a consent order with the FDIC and the Mississippi Banking Department to address identified weaknesses, S&P said.

This reflects unanticipated potential weaknesses in certain of BancorpSouth’s risk-management processes, the agency said.

The company is expected to remediate any deficiencies that regulators have identified and to complete the pending bank mergers within the extended timetable, S&P added.

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