Related Market Sector:
Fitch Ratings-London/Johannesburg-26 March 2009: Fitch Ratings has today downgraded Standard Bank of Taiwan, the Taiwanese branch of The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited (SBSA), to National Long-term 'AA-(AA minus)(twn)' from 'AA(twn)'. The Outlook is Stable. At the same time, the agency has affirmed the National Short-term rating at 'F1+(twn)'.
The downgrade reflects Fitch's recent downgrade of SBSA's Long-term foreign currency Issuer Default rating (IDR) to 'BBB+' from 'A-' (A minus) (see separate rating announcement dated 23 March 2009 on www.fitchratings.com). Standard Bank of Taiwan's National Long-term rating is based on SBSA's Long-term foreign currency IDR.
Standard Bank Group Limited is South Africa's largest banking group. It wholly-owns SBSA and has an effective shareholding of 53.7% in Liberty Group Limited, South Africa's third-largest life assurer. SBSA offers a full range of retail-, commercial-, corporate- and merchant- banking services in the domestic market. Outside South Africa, business is conducted through its international operations via Standard International Holdings.
Contacts: Anthony Walker, Denzil de Bie, Johannesburg, Tel: +27 11 380 0900; Jonathan Lee, Taipei, +8862 8175 7601.
Media Relations: Hannah Warrington, London, Tel: +44 (0) 207 417 6298,
Email:
hannah.warrington@fitchratings.com.
Note to Editors: Fitch's National ratings provide a relative measure of creditworthiness for rated entities in countries with relatively low international sovereign ratings and where there is demand for such ratings. The best risk within a country is rated 'AAA' and other credits are rated only relative to this risk. National ratings are designed for use mainly by local investors in local markets and are signified by the addition of an identifier for the country concerned, such as 'AAA(twn)' for National ratings in Taiwan. Specific letter grades are not therefore internationally comparable.
Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site.
