Fifth Third Bancorp's asset-quality trends have improved. We are revising our outlook on Fifth Third to positive from stable and affirming the ratings at 'BBB'. We expect Fifth Third to record higher-than-normal credit costs through 2011 but believe that these should be manageable. On Aug. 31, 2011, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services revised its outlook on Fifth Third Bancorp and its subsidiaries to positive from stable. At the same time, we affirmed our 'BBB' long-term counterparty credit ratings on Fifth Third and the 'BBB+' ratings on its banking subsidiaries. The rating action reflects our opinion that Fifth Third's credit quality continues to improve. Net charge-offs (NCOs) have been less than 2% for the past three quarters, nonperforming assets (NPAs) remained
