LONDON (Standard&Poor's) Nov. 16, 2007--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that its ratings and outlook on Barclays Bank PLC (Barclays; AA/Stable/A-1+) were unaffected by today's announcement of writedowns on a range of assets within its investment banking division, Barclays Capital. Barclays today revealed that it had made markdowns and impairment charges totaling approximately £1.7 billion for July 2007-October 2007 in respect of various exposures to collateralized debt obligations, other subprime loans and RMBS, Structured Investment Vehicles (SIVs), and leveraged loans. These writedowns are substantial in absolute terms, but not altogether surprising given market movements in recent months. Relative to Barclays Capital's revenue base (£4.1 billion in first-half 2007), the markdowns are lower than those seen to date
