How long will BEA stay under negative outlook?

Bank of East Asia, Hong Kong's third-largest lender, had its long-term credit rating outlook cut to negative from stable by Fitch Ratings after speculation about its stability caused depositors to withdraw money.

“Despite endeavors to ascertain exactly how much in deposits were lost, the bank has not disclosed this information,” making it hard to assess “the level of damage incurred by the bank's franchise,” Fitch said in a statement.

David Li, chairman of the bank, said Sept. 26 that operations were “quickly returning to normal” after rejecting the rumors that caused some customers to withdraw deposits last week. Hong Kong Financial Secretary John Tsang said last week the rumors were unfounded and that the bank had enough capital to serve clients.

Li, 69, bought 100,000 shares of the bank at the average price of HK$26.30 on Sept. 25, according to a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange. His stake remains at 2.76 percent after the purchase, the filing showed.

BEA doesn't plan to disclose the amount of deposits lost “for the time being,” Vera Lung, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for the firm, said. She declined to comment on Fitch's rating cut.

Fitch has an A- long-term issuer default rating on BEA, the fourth-lowest investment grade, according to the statement.

The bank said Sept. 24 its “exposure” to bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings and American International Group, taken over by the U.S. government, is about $61 million, less than 0.2 percent of assets.

Hong Kong police arrested a man suspected of spreading rumors online that urged people to withdraw deposits from a local financial institution, the South China Morning Post reported.

What could be BEA's reasons for not disclosing the total amount of deposits it lost?