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Standard & Poor’s has announced:

• •We have taken various rating actions on the operating and nonoperating holding companies (NOHCs) of certain systemically important U.K., German, and Austrian banking groups.
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• •We have lowered the issuer credit ratings on the U.K. and Swiss NOHCs to reflect our view that the prospect of extraordinary government support to the benefit of their senior creditors is now unlikely.
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• •For most of the U.K., German, and Austrian operating companies, we have placed their long-term, and in some cases also their short-term, ratings on CreditWatch with negative implications.
• •This reflects these countries’ recent full implementation of the EU Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive, our view that extraordinary government support will likely become less predictable in the near term, but also that we continue to see unresolved questions about how the legislation may operate in practice.
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• •We expect to resolve all these CreditWatch placements by early May 2015.

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As a result of our review, we took the following rating actions:

• •We lowered our long-term ratings on the following bank NOHCs by one or two notches: Barclays PLC, Credit Suisse Group AG, HSBC Holdings PLC, HSBC USA Inc., and Lloyds Banking Group PLC. Where relevant, we affirmed the short-term ratings. The outlooks on these companies are now stable, with the exception of Lloyds, which is positive. We affirmed our ratings on the hybrid capital instruments issued by, or guaranteed by, these NOHCs.

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