MELBOURNE (Standard&Poor's) Jan. 14, 2004--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that its ratings on National Australia Bank Ltd. (NAB; AA/Stable/A-1+) are unaffected following the disclosure of unauthorized foreign exchange transactions that are expected to result in pretax foreign exchange option losses of A$180 million. "Standard&Poor's will closely monitor the bank's investigation of its risk management practices, so as to better understand the nature of the risk management breakdown and the extent to which this incident is indicative of the strength of the bank's overall risk management capability," said Standard&Poor's credit analyst, Craig Bennett, Financial Services Ratings. The disclosure adds to the list of risk management problems recently faced by the bank and undermines
