London -- Standard&Poor's CreditWire 10/2/98 -- Standard and Poor's today placed its triple-'B' minus long-term and its 'A-3' short-term counterparty credit ratings on Komercni Banka a.s. (KB), Ceska Sporitelna A.S. (CS), and Ceskoslovenska Obchodni Banka A.S. (CSOB) on CreditWatch with negative implications. At the same time, Standard&Poor's also placed on CreditWatch with negative implications its double-'B' subordinated debt rating on Komercni Finance B.V., guaranteed by Komercni Banka a.s. These rating actions reflect the government's slowness in addressing certain structural problems affecting the banking sector, in particular concerning the removal of obstacles for gaining and disposing of collateral that make it difficult to reduce the chronically high level of delinquencies in the system. These Czech banks' troubled
