We believe the prospect of extraordinary government support for U.K. banks is now uncertain in view of the country's well-advanced and effective resolution regime. We are therefore removing the two notches of uplift that we had previously incorporated in the long-term counterparty credit rating on The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC (RBS) for government support. However, we are including two notches in the long-term rating because we consider that RBS is likely to increase its additional loss-absorbing capacity (ALAC) above our 8.5% two-notch threshold within a two-year projection period. We see RBS as an underperformer relative to similar peers in terms of profitability and we have therefore applied a one-notch negative adjustment to the ratings. We are lowering the long-term
