On April 22, 2008, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services affirmed its 'AA-' long-term and 'A-1+' short-term ratings on The Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBSG). The outlook remains negative, where it has been since July 2007. The ratings affirmation follows today's multiple announcement of a £12 billion ($24 billion) rights issue, new capital targets, planned asset disposals, material credit-market related write-downs, and weaker performance in its Global Banking&Markets business (GBM). RBSG has announced very large new estimated write-downs for 2008 of £5.9 billion pre-tax. This is clearly negative, but of greater importance to the ratings is the rights issue and RBSG's accompanying statement that it has set itself new capital targets. We believe these targets represent a
