Following our review of Standard Chartered group, we believe that the group's intrinsic creditworthiness has deteriorated when compared with its peers. As a result, we lowered the unsupported group credit profile (GCP) to 'a-' from 'a'. We are lowering the long-term issuer credit ratings on Standard Chartered PLC (SCPLC) to 'BBB+' from 'A-', and affirming the 'A-2' short-term counterparty credit rating. We are lowering to 'A' from 'A+' the long-term issuer credit ratings on Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), and its subsidiary in China and removing them from CreditWatch. We are also affirming our 'A-1' short-term issuer credit ratings on these entities. We are lowering to 'A+' from 'AA-' the long-term issuer credit rating on Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong and
