Banco Mercantil del Norte, S.A. -- Moody's reviews the subordinated debt ratings of two Mexican bank issuers for downgrade

The rating actions reflect Moody's opinion that the global trend towards imposing losses on junior creditors in the context of future bank resolutions may reduce the predictability of such support being provided to holders of subordinated debt, as junior obligations are expected to absorb losses on behalf of senior creditors and depositors. This view is discussed in the special comment "Supported Bank Debt Ratings at Risk of Downgrade due to New Approaches to Bank Resolution," published in February 2011.

LIST OF AFFECTED RATINGS

The following subordinated debt ratings were placed on review today:

Banco Mercantil del Norte, S.A.

Long-term global local currency subordinated debt rating of Baa1

Long-term global local currency subordinated debt program rating of (P) Baa1

Long-term global local currency junior subordinated debt rating of Baa2 (hyb)

Long-term global local currency junior subordinated debt program rating of (P) Baa2

Long-term Mexican National Scale subordinated debt rating of Aaa.mx

Long-term Mexican National Scale subordinated debt program rating of Aaa.mx

Long-term Mexican National Scale junior subordinated debt rating of Aa1.mx (hyb)

Banco Interacciones, S.A.

Long term global local currency subordinated debt rating of B1 (hyb)

Long-term global local currency subordinated debt program rating of (P) B1

Long term Mexican National Scale subordinated debt rating of Baa1.mx (hyb)

Long term Mexican National Scale subordinated debt program rating of Baa1.mx

RATINGS RATIONALE

The review for downgrade on the Mexican banks' subordinated debt ratings reflects Moody's revised approach to notching the ratings of these instruments from a bank's standalone credit assessment instead of from its supported deposit rating. Moody's currently incorporates one or two notches of systemic support in the subordinated and junior subordinated debt ratings of the listed Mexican banks.

During the rating review, Moody's will consider removing systemic support from these debt instruments, based on an assessment of the ability and the willingness of local regulators to impose losses on holders of subordinated debt outside a liquidation process.

Upon the conclusion of the review and in line with "Moody's Guidelines for Rating Bank Hybrid Securities and Subordinated Debt", published in November 2009, Moody's expects to position the ratings of subordinated debt one notch below the Adjusted Baseline Credit Assessment (Adjusted BCA) , which reflects a bank's stand-alone financial strength including parental and cooperative support. Junior subordinated debt ratings may be positioned two notches below the Adjusted BCA while deeply subordinated junior debt may be positioned three notches below the adjusted BCA.

The principal methodology used in rating these banks' ratings was Moody's Consolidated Global Bank Rating Methodology published in June 2012. Please see the Credit Policy page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.

Moody's National Scale Ratings (NSRs) are intended as relative measures of creditworthiness among debt issues and issuers within a country, enabling market participants to better differentiate relative risks. NSRs differ from Moody's global scale ratings in that they are not globally comparable with the full universe of Moody's rated entities, but only with NSRs for other rated debt issues and issuers within the same country. NSRs are designated by an ".nn" country modifier signifying the relevant country, as in ".mx" for Mexico. For further information on Moody's approach to national scale ratings, please refer to Moody's Rating Methodology published in October 2012 entitled "Mapping Moody's National Scale Ratings to Global Scale Ratings".

LAST RATING ACTIONS

The last rating action on Banco Mercantil del Norte, S.A. was on 7 September 2012, when Moody's affirmed Banorte's ratings and assigned first-time ratings to Ixe Banco and CB Banorte-Ixe.

The last rating action on Banco Interacciones, S.A. was on 31 August 2012, when Moody's assigned Baa1.mx to Interacciones's proposed subordinated notes.

Banorte is headquartered in Mexico City. As of 30 September 2012, the bank reported Mx$641.8 billion in assets.

Interacciones is headquartered in Mexico City. As of 30 September 2012, the bank reported Mx$93.5 billion in assets

The period of time covered in the financial information used to determine Banorte's rating is between 31 December 2006 and 30 September 2012 (source: Moody's, Issuer's financial statements, CNBV and Banxico).

The period of time covered in the financial information used to determine Interacciones's rating is between 31 December 2006 and 30 September 2012 (source: Moody's, Issuer's financial statements, CNBV and Banxico).

The sources and items of information used to determine Banorte's rating include 2011 and 2012 interim financial statements (source: Grupo Financiero Banorte); year-end 2011 audited financial statements (source: Grupo Financiero Banorte, audited by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited); financial statements and information on market position (source: CNBV); regulatory capital information (source: Banxico); debt offering memorandum (source: Grupo Financiero Banorte).

The sources and items of information used to determine Interacciones's rating include 2011 and 2012 interim financial statements (source: Banco Interacciones, S.A.); year-end 2011 audited financial statements (source: Banco Interacciones, S.A., audited by Salles Sainz Grant Thornton); financial statements and information on market position (source: CNBV); regulatory capital information (source: Banco de Mexico); debt offering memorandum (Banco Interacciones, S.A.).

Additional information on Rating Symbols and Definitions, issuer, lead analyst, ratings history, etc. can be found in Moody's local website www.moodys.com.mx.

REGULATORY DISCLOSURES

The Global Scale Credit Ratings on this press release that are issued by one of Moody's affiliates outside the EU are endorsed by Moody's Investors Service Ltd., One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E 14 5FA, UK, in accordance with Art.4 paragraph 3 of the Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 on Credit Rating Agencies. Further information on the EU endorsement status and on the Moody's office that has issued a particular Credit Rating is available on www.moodys.com.mx.

For ratings issued on a program, series or category/class of debt, this announcement provides relevant regulatory disclosures in relation to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series or category/class of debt or pursuant to a program for which the ratings are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider, this announcement provides relevant regulatory disclosures in relation to the rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings, this announcement provides relevant regulatory disclosures in relation to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive rating that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt, in each case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed prior to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would have affected the rating. For further information please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.mx.

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Information sources used to prepare the rating are the following: parties involved in the ratings, parties not involved in the ratings, public information, and confidential and proprietary Moody's Investors Service information.

A general listing of the sources of information used in the rating process, and the structure and voting process for the rating committees responsible for the assignment and monitoring of ratings can be found in the Disclosure tab in www.moodys.com.mx.

Moody's considers the quality of information available on the rated entity, obligation or credit satisfactory for the purposes of issuing this review.

Moody's adopts all necessary measures so that the information it uses in assigning a rating is of sufficient quality and from sources Moody's considers to be reliable including, when appropriate, independent third-party sources. However, Moody's is not an auditor and cannot in every instance independently verify or validate information received in the rating process.

Please see Moody's Rating Symbols and Definitions on the Rating Process page on www.moodys.com.mx for further information on the meaning of each rating category and the definition of default and recovery.

Please see ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com.mx for the last rating action and the rating history. The date on which some ratings were first released goes back to a time before Moody's ratings were fully digitized and accurate data may not be available. Consequently, Moody's provides a date that it believes is the most reliable and accurate based on the information that is available to it. Please see the ratings disclosure page on our website www.moodys.com.mx for further information.

Please see www.moodys.com.mx for any updates on changes to the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has issued the rating.

The ratings issued by Moody's de Mexico are opinions regarding the credit quality of securities and/or their issuers and not a recommendation to invest in any such security and/or issuer.

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