Standard&Poor's Ratings Services today published final revisions to criteria for assigning issue credit ratings to certain bank hybrid capital instruments (see "Bank Hybrid Capital And Nondeferrable Subordinated Debt Methodology And Assumptions"). This follows the Feb. 6, 2014, request for comment (see "RFC: Assigning Issue Credit Ratings To Bank And Prudentially Regulated Finance Company Hybrid Capital Instruments"). The final criteria reflect our view that the emerging global regulatory and legal environment leads to a greater risk of loss absorption by hybrid capital instruments--and therefore of 'D' (default) issue credit ratings--than our previous criteria addressed. These developments, in our view, warrant wider downward notching of the issue credit ratings on some hybrid capital instruments from the stand-alone credit profile or
