International credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P)on 17 February announced the downgrade of Bahrain-based Arab Banking Corporation's (ABC)outlook to stable from positive. 'The outlook revision reflects ABC's failure to sustain the momentum of improvement in its profitability,' S&P said in a statement. The agency foresees little chance of improved performance in 2003 given difficult economic conditions and the consequent need to increase provisioning. ABC's counterparty credit ratings were affirmed as BBB/A3, based on the bank's strong franchise, improved risk management systems and stable capitalisation. Earlier this month, ABC reached financial close on a highly-structured aircraft financing transaction (MEED 14:2:03).