On August 1, 2008, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services lowered its long-term counterparty credit rating on Germany-based Deutsche Bank AG and various core operating entities to 'AA-' from 'AA'. At the same time the 'A-1+' short-term ratings were affirmed. The outlook on all entities is negative. This rating action follows the company's announcement of additional write-downs and impairment charges totaling €2.3 billion for second-quarter 2008, which led to a low group pretax profit of €642 million. This included a €311 million loss at the bank's Corporate Banking&Securities division (CB&S), which handles its securities and investment banking business. The downgrade reflects that we no longer consider Deutsche Bank's performance to be materially stronger than that of the leading peers
