MADRID (Standard&Poor's) July 6, 2007—Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it assigned its preliminary 'AAA' long-term debt rating to the "cédulas territoriales" (CTs, Spanish covered bonds backed by the bank's public sector loan book) to be issued by Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. (AA-/Positive/A-1+) in the coming days. This will be BBVA's third CT issuance and its first one to be denominated in U.S. dollars. The preliminary CT rating is linked to the counterparty credit rating on BBVA and is enhanced above it by: -- The issue's high degree of overcollateralization provided by the bank's public sector loan book; and -- The expected strong capacity of the public sector loan portfolio to generate cash flow, reducing
