On March 6, 2009, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services lowered its long-term counterparty credit rating on French bank RCI Banque to 'BBB' from 'BBB+'. At the same time, we affirmed the 'A-2' short-term rating and removed both ratings from CreditWatch, where they had been placed with negative implications on Feb. 3, 2009. The outlook is negative. The rating action reflects the downgrade of the parent company Renault S.A. (BBB-/Negative/A-3), as well as our expectation that RCI's financial profile will deteriorate more than we previously anticipated in 2009 and 2010. We expect the sharp economic slowdown to materially weigh on car demand and to continue deteriorating the credit quality of RCI's loan book due to weaker household and dealer solvency in