As I have mentioned time and again, those idiots on here who go on about Australia being some miracle that is immune to the economic perils that we face in the Northern Hemisphere.

Fitch may follow Poor's wake up call to you.

FITCH THREATENS DOWNGRADE OF AUSTRALIA'S BANKS

The big four Australian banks have been warned they may be downgraded by Fitch Ratings agency because of their reliance on offshore funding.

ANZ, Commonwealth, NAB and Westpac all face the prospect of their AA ratings being downgraded by at least one notch.

Fitch Ratings senior director John Miles says the agency is reassessing the risks associated with the banks' reliance on wholesale funding.

"When we look at their funding mix, if we exclude equity around 30 per cent of their funding comes from offshore wholesales markets," he said.

"The particular issue there - and this is why it's a reassessment of risk - is that it's become apparent since 2007 that the reliance on this source of funding can be vulnerable due to swings in confidence."

But Mr Miles says Australian banks still remain among the strongest in the world.

He says on nearly all other measures, such as profitability and asset quality, the big four are very robust, which puts them in fine company.

"The banks that we currently have rated in the AA category include five of the six Canadian banks, we have got four of the six Singaporean banks in that range, and then we've got the larger global groups such as Rabobank and HSBC, so they are in a group of very strong banks," he said.

"I think that the ratings after this review will still reflect the fact that they are strong banks."

Leading analyst Brian Johnson from CLSA says it is no surprise Australian banks may face a downgrade.

"If you look at the ratio of loans to deposits, it's still 130 per cent, which means they are structurally reliant on offshore funding," he said.
Fitch's warning comes about two months after Standard and Poor's downgraded the big four banks to AA-.