On Nov. 15, 2002, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services lowered its counterparty credit and insurer financial strength ratings on Germany-based holding company and reinsurer R+V Versicherung AG (RVV) to 'A' from 'A+'. At the same time, Standard & Poor's removed its ratings on RVV from CreditWatch, where they were placed on Aug. 8, 2002, following the downgrade of parent company DZ Bank AG Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank (DZ Bank; A-/Negative/A-2). The outlook is negative. In addition, Standard & Poor's lowered its public information-based ('pi') counterparty credit and insurer financial strength ratings on core subsidiary R+V Allgemeine Versicherung AG (RVA) to 'Api' from 'A+pi', in line with group rating methodology, as RVV is the holding and reinsurance company of the R+V group, and
