On Oct. 24, 2008, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services lowered its long-term counterparty credit rating on France-based RCI Banque to 'BBB+' from 'A-'. The outlook is negative. At the same time, the 'A-2' short-term counterparty credit rating was affirmed. The rating action reflects today's downgrade of RCI's parent Renault S.A. (BBB/Negative/A-3). It also factors in our anticipation of a moderate decline in RCI's profitability in 2009, amid a likely economic slowdown in most of the countries where the bank operates, and the maintenance of difficult refinancing conditions for wholesale funded banks despite the likely positive impact of the announced French plan to reinforce confidence in its banking and financial system. We continue to rate RCI one notch higher than Renault,
