Following the passing of the financial-overhaul bill last week, it is claimed that the large banks would be brought on the brink of major credit-ratings downgrades.

According to an article on the Wall Street Journal by Marc Gongloff, with the passing of the bill the large banks would reach a major credit rating downgrades. Further, the downgrade could sock them with billions of dollars with the additional financing costs.

Banks like Citigroup Inc and Bank of America Corp are too big to fail as the enjoy higher rankings from the Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's since the support of the government is implied for these big banks.

However, the rating agencies issued a warning that in the case if the safety net thins down or goes away completely, they would resort to cutting the bank ratings.

According to the reports, the new bill that has been passed by the Senate, has considerably weakened not only the safety net, but has also curtailed the risk taking capabilities, followed by the profitability of these banks.

It is being speculated that incase the final bill that is currently under discussion by the House and Senate, preserves the characteristics, the possibility of the rating companies lowering credit ratings for several big banks would be extremely high.