MELBOURNE (Standard&Poor's) Dec. 22, 2010--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it has lowered its ratings on industry service provider Cuscal Ltd. (Cuscal) to 'A+/A-1' from 'AA-/A-1+'. At the same time we revised the outlook on the ratings to negative from stable. "Cuscal's increasingly concentrated exposure to individual credit unions, stemming from ongoing industry consolidation, has moderated our view of its credit profile," Standard&Poor's credit analyst Mei Lee Da Silva said. The rating action also reflects our view of Cuscal's important, but diminishing, role in the credit union industry in Australia, with larger credit unions meeting more of their financial services needs without Cuscal's support. Industry consolidation has also heightened the potentially negative business impact
