Four of the largest U.S. banks saw their ratings from Moody’s Investors Service cut on Thursday. The agency cited the reduced likelihood that the government would help Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (NYSE: BK), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS), J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) repay creditors in a crisis, as a result of the Dodd-Frank banking reforms.

Moody’s began a review of eight U.S. financial institutions back in August, and that review has now concluded. The agency’s ratings of Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC), Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C), State Street Corp. (NYSE: STT) and Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) were reaffirmed.

The senior holding company ratings of those institutions that saw a downgrade were lowered just one level: to A1 from Aa3 for Bank of New York, to Baa1 from A3 for Goldman Sachs, to A3 from A2 for J.P. Morgan and to Baa2 from Baa1 for Morgan Stanley.

The statement from Moody’s said:

We believe that U.S. bank regulators have made substantive progress in establishing a credible framework to resolve a large, failing bank. … Rather than relying on public funds to bail out one of these institutions, we expect that bank holding company creditors will be bailed-in and thereby shoulder much of the burden to help recapitalize a failing bank.

Rival ratings agency Standard & Poor’s took a similar stance back in June, indicating that it had become “increasingly clear” that the federal government might not rescue a failing bank in a crisis.

Shares of Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley were all inactive in premarket trading Friday. Shares of Bank of America were up fractionally in early trading, but Citigroup and Wells Fargo shares were inactive as well.

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