TOKYO (Standard&Poor's) Dec. 25, 2014--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services today said that its ratings on Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. (SMFG; A/Negative/A-1) and the group's core operating bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. (SMBC; A+/Negative/A-1), would be unaffected by SMBC's announcement that its subsidiary, SMBC Trust Bank Ltd, will acquire Citibank Japan Ltd.'s retail banking business. We estimate that Citibank Japan's retail banking total assets would be about ¥2.4 trillion, which is in line with its deposit amount, or about 1.4% of SMFG's total assets of ¥172 trillion. Although the amount of goodwill is unclear, we think it will likely fall within a range that would not substantially affect our assessment of the group's capitalization. We believe SMFG is
