LONDON (Standard&Poor's) April 22, 2008--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services today said it had 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,"
