German Landesbank Hessen-Thueringen Girozentrale (Helaba) has taken over WestLB's business with savings banks and parts of its business with public-sector and midsize corporate clients. In our view, this transaction has no immediate impact on the SFHT group's credit profile. We are affirming our 'A/A-1' ratings on the core member banks of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe Hessen-Thueringen (SFHT) including their central bank, Helaba. The stable outlook reflects our assessment that the financial profiles of SFHT and Helaba will stay relatively resilient under increasingly difficult market conditions, and are less likely to change over the next one to two years. On July 10, 2012, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services affirmed its 'A' long-term and 'A-1' short-term counterparty credit ratings on the core member banks
