On Dec. 5, 2014, Standard&Poor's lowered its unsolicited long-term sovereign credit ratings on the Republic of Italy to 'BBB-' from 'BBB'. Under our criteria, Cattolica's indicative stand-alone credit profile is unchanged at 'bbb', but our ratings on it are limited by the sovereign credit rating on Italy because of the insurer's material exposure to Italian investments. As a result, we are lowering our ratings on Cattolica to 'BBB-' from 'BBB'. The stable outlook reflects that on Italy. On Dec. 12, 2014, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services lowered to 'BBB-' from 'BBB' its long-term counterparty credit rating and insurer financial strength ratings on Italian insurer Societa Cattolica di Assicurazione (Cattolica). The outlook is stable. We also lowered our rating
