Standard & Poor's downgraded by one level the long-term rating of France's BNP Paribas SA, which has been present in Bulgaria since 1994, citing vulnerability of its funding and liquidity profiles.

After reviewing the ratings of the country’s five largest banks, S&P lowered the long-term counterparty credit rating of BNP Paribas and its main units to AA- from AA, with a stable outlook.

The credit- rating company affirmed BNP Paribas's short-term counterparty rating.

"Funding market dislocations and negative market sentiment have revealed that the funding and liquidity profiles of the five banks are more vulnerable than we had thought," S&P said in the statement. "The moderate current capital position of BNP Paribas, BPCE, Groupe Credit Agricole and Societe Generale is a ratings weakness," S&P said.

The agency maintained its A+/A- credit ratings of French banks Societe Generale SA, Credit Agricole SA, Groupe BPCE and Credit Mutuel.

S&P has stable outlooks on the ratings of Societe Generale, Credit Agricole, BPCE and Credit Mutuel, the company also said.

"We now factor one notch of government support (rather than none previously) into our counterparty credit ratings on these four banking groups," S&P said. Unlike the other four French banks, BNP Paribas' long-term rating "does not incorporate notches of explicit uplift for potential extraordinary support from the French government given its already high rating."

Bulgaria's commercial and investment bank BNP Paribas Bulgaria was established under the name of BNP-Dresdner Bank Bulgaria in 1994.

BNP-Dresdner Bank was set up with Banque Nationale de Paris and Dresdner Bank holding 40% each and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development the remaining 20%.

BNP and Paribas merged in 2000.