NEW YORK (Standard & Poor's) June 1, 2006--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that the $2.4 billion repayment FirstBank Puerto Rico (FirstBank; NYSE: FBP) received from Doral Financial Corp. (Doral) on May 31 will not affect FirstBank's ratings. Though FirstBank could incur a maximum loss of $9.5 million for the transaction, we still view the repayment very positively. The repayment reduces FirstBank's exposure to Doral to approximately $450 million from $2.9 billion and addresses a major regulatory concern. Furthermore, it adds approximately 240 basis points to FirstBank's total capital ratio, which gives the company some much-needed flexibility above the regulatory "well-capitalized" threshold. The proceeds will be used to pay down maturing brokered CDs. The company's ratings remain on CreditWatch
