Anti-Brexit protester Steve Bray packs away placards into his car after the result was announced on Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal, outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain, January 15, 2019. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

LONDON (Reuters) - A no deal Brexit would represent a major failure of Britain’s political institutions that would weigh negatively on the country’s creditworthiness, ratings agency Moody’s said on Wednesday.

“From a sovereign credit perspective, if you end up with a ‘no deal’ Brexit that is a sign that something institutionally has really quite profoundly failed,” Moody’s senior vice president Sarah Carlson told a conference in London.

Carlson said perceptions of how functional a country’s institutions were was a big factor in setting its credit rating, though Moody’s would need to disentangle short-term noise and long-term damage in the event of a disorderly Brexit.

Moody’s currently rates Britain at Aa2 with a stable outlook.