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Fitch Ratings-London/Johannesburg-23 July 2009: Fitch Ratings has today affirmed Standard Bank of Taiwan's, the Taiwanese branch of The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited (SBSA), National Long-term rating at 'AA-(twn)' with a Stable Outlook. At the same time, the agency has affirmed the National Short-term rating at 'F1+(twn)'.
Standard Bank of Taiwan's National Long-term rating is solely derived from SBSA's Long-term foreign currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of 'BBB+'.
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 its domestic market. The bank conducts its international operations through Standard International Holdings S.A., Standard Bank Group International Limited and Standard Bank Offshore Group Limited.
Contacts: Denzil de Bie, Anthony Walker, Johannesburg, Tel: +27 11 380 0900.
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.
