HONG KONG (Standard&Poor's) July 24, 2009--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that its ratings on Bank of East Asia Limited (BEA; A-/Negative/A-2) are not affected by a proposal to buy back Lehman Brothers minibond products by the Hong Kong banks that distributed them. In our view, the estimated cost of the proposed repurchase would have a very limited direct impact on the credit profiles of BEA. We believe the ongoing customer complaints and demonstrations against the numerous local banks that distributed the minibond products have generally impaired customer confidence in purchasing structured products from banks. This is likely to impose additional pressure on fee income in the banking sector. BEA and 15 other banks have agreed with
