Following a review under Standard&Poor's revised bank criteria (published on Nov. 9, 2011), we have affirmed our 'A/A-1' ratings on the core members of Germany's Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe Hessen-Thueringen (SFHT), including its central bank Landesbank Hessen-Thueringen Girozentrale (Helaba). The outlook is stable. Our ratings on the SFHT's member banks reflect our view of the SFHT's aggregate adequate business position, strong capital and earnings, adequate risk position, average funding, and adequate liquidity. The ratings reflect our expectation on solidarity support among member banks in a crisis as we consider the SFHT a cohesive economic group of legally independent institutions. We do not factor in additional uplift for potential extraordinary government support. The stable outlook reflects our view that the financial profiles
