We have historically added a notch to our ratings on U.S. Bancorp--after and in addition to our assessment of its stand-alone credit profile (SACP)--to reflect its outperformance of similarly rated peers. Due to a change in our criteria for rating financial institutions, we are now incorporating our view of U.S. Bancorp's peer outperformance directly in the SACP and therefore revised up the SACP by one notch. Because we rate hybrid securities relative to the SACP, we raised our issue ratings on U.S. Bancorp's subordinated debt and preferred stock to 'A' and 'BBB+' and on certain subsidiaries' subordinated debt and preferred stock to 'A+' and 'A-'. The change in the SACP has no impact on our issuer credit ratings on U.S.
