NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) Jan. 22, 2009--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that its rating on Fifth Third Bancorp (A-/Negative/A-2) will remain unchanged despite the firm's announcement of a $2.2 billion loss for both the fourth quarter and fiscal 2008. We had factored increased loan losses and weakened profitability in our Dec. 19, 2008, rating action on Fifth Third. Besides a $965 million write-down of goodwill, loan-loss provisions increased to $2.4 billion in the quarter for reserve build, as these exceeded $1.6 billion in net charge-offs (NCOs). Management took aggressive write-downs of commercial mortgage, industrial, and construction loans related to residential homebuilding, especially in Florida and Michigan, resulting in total NCOs of 7.50% of average loans and leases.
