MADRID (Standard&Poor's) May 4, 2009--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it has taken rating actions on seven Greek and Cypriot banks after reviewing the expected impact of a steeper-than-anticipated economic downturn than in our late-2008 review, both domestically and in other Southeastern European (SEE) markets, where most of these banks have meaningful exposure. The actions are as follows: -- We lowered our long-term counterparty credit rating on Greece-based EFG Eurobank Ergasias S.A. to 'BBB+' from 'A-'. The outlook is negative. At the same time, we affirmed our 'A-2' short-term counterparty credit rating on the bank. We also lowered our ratings on EFG's hybrid capital securities (preferred stock) to 'BB-' from 'BB+'. -- We lowered our long-term
