Banque et Caisse d'Epargne de l'Etat still holds its top-notch AAA rating, but Moody’s placed the bank on its “negative outlook” list. That means the credit ratings agency could downgrade its debt during the next 12 to 18 months. Such a move would likely drive up BCEE’s cost of borrowing in the global capital markets.

All told, Moody’s said it would revisit the credit scores of 114 financial institutions in 16 European countries. In addition to BCEE, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, Credit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, ING Group, Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander, Societe Generale and UniCredit are among the banks placed on the review list.

Earlier in the week, Moody’s had placed three top-notch rated countries on negative outlook, and also downgraded the sovereign debt of six other euro zone countries. However, the agency maintained AAA ratings on Luxembourg, as well as for Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden, and on the European Financial Stability Facility, the Luxembourg-based euro zone rescue fund which is backed by euro zone member states.

Nevertheless, the bank warnings “reflect, to differing degrees, the combined pressures from the adverse and prolonged impact of the euro area crisis, which makes the operating environment very difficult for European banks; [and] the deteriorating creditworthiness of euro area sovereigns,” the ratings agency said in a statement.

Competitive ratings agency Standard & Poor’s re-affirmed its second highest AA+ rating on BCEE in late January.