PARIS (Standard&Poor's) May 18, 2009--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it has raised the long- and short-term counterparty credit ratings on Fortis Bank SA/NV (FBB) to 'AA-/A-1+' from 'A/Watch Pos/A-1', including those on its core Luxembourg-based subsidiary, BGL S.A. The outlook on the long-term ratings is negative. In a related rating action, we upgraded FBB's hybrid securities to 'BBB+' from 'BB+/Watch Dev', except for convertible and subordinated hybrid equity-linked securities (CASHES; CC/Watch Dev/--) where the rating remains unchanged. We removed all of the ratings from CreditWatch, where they were originally placed on Oct. 6, 2008. "This rating action follows the settlement of the acquisition of 75% of FBB by BNP Paribas (AA/Negative/A-1+), one of Europe's largest
