MILAN (Standard&Poor's) May 15, 2009—Standard&Poor's Ratings Services today lowered and removed from CreditWatch negative its credit ratings on the class A and B notes series 5 issued by Sestante Finance S.r.l. (see list below). These rating actions reflect our assumption that Banca Popolare dell'Emilia Romagna S.C. (A-/Negative/A-2), which acts as swap counterparty in this transaction, will not be replaced. Sestante Finance series 5 closed in June 2008 and is an Italian residential mortgage-backed securities transaction backed by a pool of mortgage loans secured over residential properties located in Italy. We placed classes A and B on CreditWatch negative on Nov. 27, 2008, following the publication of our revised methodology for 'A-2' rated derivatives counterparties (see "Related