Fitch Ratings Affirms Ratings For FleetBoston Financial Corp.

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 29, 2002

Following the announcement made by FleetBoston Financial Corporation earlier today, Fitch Ratings has affirmed all ratings including long term senior debt ('A+') and short term debt ('F1'). A complete list of all affirmed FleetBoston ratings is at the end of this release.

FleetBoston Financial Corporation (FBF), which has had a large local banking presence in Argentina for nearly a century, announced today that it is taking additional charges totaling $900 million pretax, or $538 million after-tax. These charges are in addition to the special charges announced in December 2001 which included some write-downs on Argentine securities but also unrelated actions taken in a number of FBF's other business units. As a result of both sets of charges, FBF announced a net loss of $507 million for 4Q01.

We had previously factored FBF's Latin American risk into our ratings, particularly as the situation in Argentina deteriorated. Our continued comfort with the current ratings is largely attributed to the relatively strong capital and liquidity positions that FBF had accumulated prior to these events. Following these charges, FBF's tangible common equity position remains reasonable (in excess of 6%). We believe that the core earnings capability of FBF's franchise, which is very diversified, will allow the company to rebuild the cushion in its capital position in relatively short order. Further, FBF's liquidity position should allow it to comfortably weather this period of time, under stressed scenarios.

The Argentine situation is a particularly difficult one for the banks operating there. The new government has mandated what amounts to an asymmetrical devaluation, devaluing different asset and liability classes at different rates, wreaking havoc even for those institutions with matched currency positions. Further, many of the details are either still unclear or have changed since the initial government releases. Looking at the detail provided by FBF, we recognize that the Argentine situation is still subject to a great deal of change. FBF's charges attempt to set aside substantial provisions against the belief that credit deterioration is certain, albeit extremely difficult to quantify. Further, FBF has attempted to factor in devaluation levels that are more severe than the official exchange rate but, again, difficult to predict in a more free-market environment. A portion of the charge recognizes the pesofication of small loans. Offsetting this, the government has indicated that it will offer the local banks revenue bonds to make up for this mandated loss of value. While FBF has discounted the value of these bonds, we have assigned no value to the bonds in our analysis given the fluidity of the current situation. FBF has also indicated that its outlook for 2002 calls for its Argentine business unit to break-even, a condition that is difficult to assume if any of its above assumptions turn out to be too generous. Nevertheless, we have stressed our assumptions to include moderate further deterioration in the Argentine portfolio, beyond the reserves established through the charges announced today. We have considered such a scenario along with the assumption that FBF's other businesses perform close to management's expectations, in affirming our ratings. Clearly, 2001 was a difficult year on many fronts -- some more anticipated than others. However, FBF's strong balance sheet, solid deposit franchise and prudent liquidity management help the firm comfortably absorb the impact of these actions.

Fitch has affirmed the following ratings for FleetBoston Financial Corporation:

FleetBoston Financial Corp

-- Senior long-term 'A+';

-- Subordinated debt 'A';

-- Short-term debt and commercial paper 'F1';

-- Individual rating 'B';

-- Support rating '5'.

Fleet National Bank

-- Uninsured deposits long-term 'AA-';

-- Short-term Deposits 'F1+';

-- Senior long-term 'A+';

-- Senior short-term 'F1+';

-- Subordinated 'A';

--Individual rating 'B';

-- Support rating '4'.

Fleet Bank (Rhode Island) NA

-- Uninsured deposits short-term 'F1+';

-- Senior short-term 'F1';

-- Uninsured deposits long-term 'AA-';

-- Senior long-term 'A+';

-- Long Term Deposit Rating 'AA-';

Fleet Capital Trust

-- Preferred stock 'A'.