NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) Aug. 17, 2012--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services today said its ratings on M&T Bank Corp. (A-/Stable/A-2) are unaffected by the modification and sale by the U.S. Treasury of approximately $381.5 million of preferred stock that was originally issued as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in 2008. We view the transaction as modestly positive to the ratings. We believe it removes some uncertainty related to M&T's longer-term plans for meeting expected Basel III capital requirements. It also bolsters M&T's risk-adjusted capital (RAC) ratio before diversification to approximately 7.25%, pro forma for first-quarter 2012. (Based on our criteria, we consider a RAC ratio of 7%-10% to be "adequate.") However, in the medium term, we
