Strong national customer franchise with a firm base in the north of Italy. Better asset quality than peers'. Stable, retail-oriented funding base. Modest internal capital generation with income constrained by increased cost of funding. Comparatively high exposure to corporate credit risk. Relatively high single-name loan concentration. Standard&Poor's Ratings Services placed the long-term ratings on Italy-based Unione di Banche Italiane Scpa (UBI) on CreditWatch negative on Dec. 7, 2011, following the CreditWatch negative placement on the Republic of Italy (A/Watch Neg/A-1). We expect to resolve the CreditWatch placement on UBI within four weeks of any resolution of the CreditWatch on Italy. There are two main links between bank and sovereign ratings. The first relates to the application of government
