MELBOURNE (Standard&Poor's) Oct. 5, 2012--Standard&Poor's Rating Services said today that it has raised its ratings on 38 hybrid capital instruments issued by eight Australian banking groups and their subsidiary companies; and at the same time removed them from CreditWatch with positive implications, where they were placed on Sept. 7, 2012 (see list). This rating action follows a statement by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), on Sept. 28, 2012, concerning the release of its Basel III capital reform package. The ratings affected by this announcement include those on preference shares, junior subordinated debt, and other hybrid instruments issued by Australian financial institutions. Our counterparty credit ratings on these institutions are unaffected, because our view of the
