MELBOURNE (Standard&Poor's) Feb. 9, 2012--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that its 'AA-/A-1+' ratings on National Australia Bank Ltd. (NAB) were unchanged following NAB's recent 2012 First Quarter Trading Update. Our outlook for NAB remains stable. NAB's recent performance and future performance prospects remain consistent with our current view of the strong 'AA-' credit standing on the bank. This includes our view of the bank's risk position, capitalization and earnings, funding, and systemic importance in the Australian banking sector. NAB's U.K. banking subsidiary continues to under-perform relative to NAB's other major businesses, however, and is a negative counterpoint of NAB's business position compared with the business positions of its three major Australian-based competitors. We nonetheless continue to
