NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) Dec. 30, 2008--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services today lowered its ratings on 18 Barclays Bank PLC letter of credit (LOC)-supported bond issues and removed the ratings from CreditWatch with negative implications. At the same time, Standard&Poor's affirmed its ratings on three jointly supported bond issues and two commercial paper (CP) programs. These rating actions follow our Dec. 19, 2008, rating actions on Barclays Bank (see "Barclays Bank PLC L-T Rating Lowered To 'AA-'; 'A-1+' S-T Rating Affirmed; Outlook Negative" on RatingsDirect, the real-time Web-based source for Standard&Poor's credit ratings, research, and risk analysis, at www.ratingsdirect.com). The lowered ratings on the 18 affected issues are based on the credit and liquidity support
