On Oct. 27, 2008, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services affirmed its 'A' long-term counterparty credit ratings and 'A-1' short-term ratings on Sweden-based Swedbank AB. The outlook on the long-term ratings is negative. The rating affirmation follows today's announcement that the bank will raise a total of Swedish krona (SEK) 12.4 billion through a new issue of preference shares. The issue is 100% underwritten by the largest shareholders of the bank, including the savings banks foundation, the independent saving banks, and the Swedish national pension funds. While we recognize that the issue will enhance Swedbank's Core Tier 1 ratio and Tier 1 ratio by about 180 basis points to 7.2% and 8.2% respectively (under transitional Basel II rules) from 2009, the
