MILAN (Standard&Poor's) April 16, 2009--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services today said that it views Unione di Banche Italiane Scpa's (UBI Banca; A/Stable/A-1) proposed exchange offers on all its outstanding Tier 1 perpetual subordinated hybrid capital instruments (Tier 1 instruments), as well as various lower Tier 2 subordinated debt instruments (Tier 2 instruments) as opportunistic. As such, under our criteria the exchange offers for the instruments would not constitute a "distressed exchange." Neither the counterparty credit ratings on UBI Banca, nor the ratings on the Tier 1 and Tier 2 instruments are affected by the exchange offers. UBI Banca has announced that it proposes to make exchange offers for three series of Tier 1 instruments with an aggregate nominal