FRANKFURT (Standard&Poor's) May 6, 2009--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that following a review of all six rated German Landesbanks, it has taken various rating actions, downgrading five institutions by at least one notch. The outlook on all six institutions is negative (for full details of rating actions see the list below). The review focused on the following factors: -- The potential impact of a sharply deteriorated economic outlook on the asset quality of these banks; -- Their short- to medium-term business prospects in light of ongoing market dislocations; -- The challenges they face to their funding capacity and capital requirement in a fundamentally changing banking environment; and -- The agreed and expected extraordinary support measures by
