On Dec. 19, 2008, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services lowered its long-term counterparty credit rating on Wells Fargo&Co. and its subsidiaries one notch to 'AA' from 'AA+', affirmed the 'A-1+' short-term rating on Wells Fargo, and removed the long-term ratings from CreditWatch Negative where they were placed on Oct. 3, 2008. The outlook is negative. The rating action reflects our more negative view regarding bank industry risk and losses--both of which are greater than we previously believed. Now that a longer global recession is more probable, we expect higher levels of stress for financial institutions than those experienced during a typical business-cycle trough. The downgrade was made in conjunction with our portfolio review of major global financial institutions
