...February 19, 2025 TOKYO (S&P Global Ratings) Feb. 19, 2025--S&P Global Ratings today assigned its '##+' long-term issue credit rating to Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc.'s (SMFG; A-/Stable/--) perpetual, subordinated additional tier 1 (AT1) notes (US$1.25 billion). We understand the issuance will qualify as Basel III-compliant AT1 notes under Japanese regulations. The issue rating on the AT1 notes to be issued by the nonoperating holding company (NOHC) of one of the largest banking groups in Japan is five notches lower than our assessment of SMFG's group stand-alone credit profile (SACP) of 'a'. We believe that extraordinary support from the government would unlikely be available for these AT1 notes. We use the issuer credit rating we assign SMFG as our starting point. This rating is one notch below the group SACP, because of structural subordination. Overall, the five-notch downward revision from our group SACP reflects the following: - One notch for contractual subordination; - Two...