On Feb. 19, 2008, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services affirmed its ratings, including the 'A+' long-term and 'A-1' short-term counterparty credit ratings on the Bank of Montreal (BMO) and its subsidiaries following the bank's decision to provide funding support to its two structured investment vehicles (SIVs), Links Finance Corp. and Parkland Finance Corp. The outlook is stable. BMO announced today that it would provide a liquidity facility to each of its SIVs that can be drawn as senior notes mature and if access to the commercial paper and medium-term note funding markets continues to be closed. Links and Parkland have net assets of US$12.3 billion and €$1.2 billion, respectively. All economic risk will continue to be borne by the capital
