PRESS RELEASE: S&P Raises SLB Rtgs To AA-/A-1+; Off Watch Pos; Rtgs Withdrawn

15th Jun 2010 12:16

The following is a press release from Standard & Poor's: -- Following completion of the transfer of Standard Life Bank PLC's (SLB) assets and liabilities to Barclays Bank PLC (Barclays), Barclays has become the direct or indirect obligor in respect of the outstanding rated debt formerly issued or guaranteed by SLB. -- We have therefore raised the counterparty credit ratings on SLB and the issue ratings on its outstanding debt to be in line with Barclays. At the same time, we removed the ratings from CreditWatch positive. -- Subsequently, we withdrew the counterparty credit ratings on SLB because SLB no longer exists as a separate regulated legal entity. The issue ratings remain outstanding. LONDON (Standard & Poor's) June 15, 2010--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that it raised its long- and short-term counterparty credit ratings on U.K.-based Standard Life Bank PLC (SLB) to 'AA-/A-1+' from 'A-/A-2' to equal those on its parent, Barclays Bank PLC (AA-/Negative/A-1+). At the same time, we removed the ratings from CreditWatch, where they had been placed with positive implications on Oct. 27, 2009. Subsequently, we withdrew the counterparty credit ratings on SLB because SLB no longer exists as a separate regulated legal entity. The outlook at the time of the withdrawal was negative. The issue ratings remain outstanding. The rating action follows the completion of the transfer of SLB's assets and liabilities to Barclays. As a result, Barclays has become the direct or indirect obligor in respect of SLB's outstanding rated debt. SLB's funding vehicle, Standard Life Funding B.V. (not rated), has been renamed Barclays SLCSM Funding B.V. and its outstanding debt issues are now guaranteed by Barclays. RELATED CRITERIA AND RESEARCH Group Methodology, April 22, 2009 Complete ratings information is available to RatingsDirect on the Global Credit Portal subscribers at www.globalcreditportal.com and RatingsDirect subscribers at www.ratingsdirect.com. All ratings affected by this rating action can be found on Standard & Poor's public Web site at www.standardandpoors.com. Use the Ratings search box located in the left column. Alternatively, call one of the following Standard & Poor's numbers: Client Support Europe (44) 20-7176-7176; London Press Office (44) 20-7176-3605; Paris (33) 1-4420-6708; Frankfurt (49) 69-33-999-225; Stockholm (46) 8-440-5914; or Moscow (7) 495-783-4011. Primary Credit Analyst: Nigel Greenwood, London (44) 20-7176-7211; [email protected] Secondary Credit Analyst: Richard Barnes, London (44) 20-7176-7227; [email protected] Additional Contact: Financial Institutions Ratings Europe; [email protected] No content (including ratings, credit-related analyses and data, model, software or other application or output therefrom) or any part thereof (Content) may be modified, reverse engineered, reproduced or distributed in any form by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of S&P. The Content shall not be used for any unlawful or unauthorized purposes. S&P, its affiliates, and any third-party providers, as well as their directors, officers, shareholders, employees or agents (collectively S&P Parties) do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, timeliness or availability of the Content. S&P Parties are not responsible for any errors or omissions, regardless of the cause, for the results obtained from the use of the Content, or for the security or maintenance of any data input by the user. The Content is provided on an "as is" basis. S&P PARTIES DISCLAIM ANY AND ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR USE, FREEDOM FROM BUGS, SOFTWARE ERRORS OR DEFECTS, THAT THE CONTENT'S FUNCTIONING WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR THAT THE CONTENT WILL OPERATE WITH ANY SOFTWARE OR HARDWARE CONFIGURATION. In no event shall S&P Parties be liable to any party for any direct, indirect, incidental, exemplary, compensatory, punitive, special or consequential damages, costs, expenses, legal fees, or losses (including, without limitation, lost income or lost profits and opportunity costs) in connection with any use of the Content even if advised of the possibility of such damages. Credit-related analyses, including ratings, and statements in the Content are statements of opinion as of the date they are expressed and not statements of fact or recommendations to purchase, hold, or sell any securities or to make any investment decisions. S&P assumes no obligation to update the Content following publication in any form or format. The Content should not be relied on and is not a substitute for the skill, judgment and experience of the user, its management, employees, advisors and/or clients when making investment and other business decisions. S&P's opinions and analyses do not address the suitability of any security. S&P does not act as a fiduciary or an investment advisor. While S&P has obtained information from sources it believes to be reliable, S&P does not perform an audit and undertakes no duty of due diligence or independent verification of any information it receives. S&P keeps certain activities of its business units separate from each other in order to preserve the independence and objectivity of their respective activities. As a result, certain business units of S&P may have information that is not available to other S&P business units. S&P has established policies and procedures to maintain the confidentiality of certain non-public information received in connection with each analytical process. S&P may receive compensation for its ratings and certain credit-related analyses, normally from issuers or underwriters of securities or from obligors. S&P reserves the right to disseminate its opinions and analyses. S&P's public ratings and analyses are made available on its Web sites, www.standardandpoors.com (free of charge), and www.ratingsdirect.com and www.globalcreditportal.com (subscription), and may be distributed through other means, including via S&P publications and third-party redistributors. Additional information about our ratings fees is available at www.standardandpoors.com/usratingsfees. Any Passwords/user IDs issued by S&P to users are single user-dedicated and may ONLY be used by the individual to whom they have been assigned. No sharing of passwords/user IDs and no simultaneous access via the same password/user ID is permitted. To reprint, translate, or use the data or information other than as provided herein, contact Client Services, 55 Water Street, New York, NY 10041; (1) 212-438-7280 or by e-mail to: [email protected]. Copyright (c) 2010, Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC, a subsidiary of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 15, 2010 07:16 ET (11:16 GMT)