TORONTO (Standard&Poor's CreditWire) April 30, 2001--Standard&Poor's today announced its harmonized ratings on National Bank of Canada (see list below). At the same time, the outlook on the bank was revised to stable from negative. On Oct. 31, 2000, Standard&Poor's and the Canadian Bond Rating Service (CBRS) announced that they have combined operations in Canada. A process is under way to harmonize all ratings assigned by CBRS with the Standard&Poor's framework, which includes the translation of all ratings onto the Standard&Poor's ratings scale. The ratings announced today are expressed on Standard&Poor's global ratings scale. Going forward, all new debt issue ratings on National Bank will be based on the