S&P Cuts Scottish Mutual and Scottish Provident Rtgs.Business Editors LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 11, 2003 Standard & Poor's Ratings Services Ratings Service A company, such as Moody's or Standard & Poor's, that rates various debt and preferred stock issues for safety of payment of principal, interest, or dividends. said today it lowered its long-term counterparty credit and insurer financial strength ratings on U.K.-based insurer Scottish Mutual Assurance PLC (SMA (1) See SMA connector. (2) (Shared Memory Architecture) See shared video memory. (3) (Software Maintenance Association) A membership organization that began in 1985 and ended in 1996. ) to 'BBB+' from 'A-'. At the same time, Standard & Poor's lowered its long-term counterparty credit rating on related U.K.-based insurer Scottish Provident Ltd. (SPL (1) (Systems Programming Language) The assembly language for the HP 3000 series. See assembly language for an SPL program example. (2) (Structured Programming Language) See structured programming. 1. ) to 'BBB+' from 'A-'. The outlook on both entities is stable. In addition, Standard & Poor's lowered its junior subordinated debt Subordinated Debt A loan (or security) that ranks below other loans (or securities) with regard to claims on assets or earnings. Also known as "junior security" or "subordinated loan". rating on the GBP GBP In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the British Pound. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. 200 million ($280 million) perpetual junior subordinated notes issued by SMA to 'BBB-' from 'BBB'. Standard & Poor's also lowered its subordinated debt rating on the GBP125 million perpetual subordinated notes issued by SPI (1) (Stateful Packet Inspection) See stateful inspection. (2) (Service Provider Interface) The programming interface for developing Windows drivers under WOSA. Finance PLC and guaranteed by SPL to 'BBB-' from 'BBB'. "The downgrades reflect a reduction in the level of implicit support that Standard & Poor's adds to the stand-alone assessments of the companies in order to determine the ratings on both SMA and SPL as subsidiaries of Abbey National PLC (Abbey National; AA-/Negative/A-1+)," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst David Laxton. Notwithstanding strong capital support for these life subsidiaries over the past two years, Standard & Poor's considers that Abbey National is likely to maintain lower solvency margins in its closed with-profits funds than has been the case in the past. "Nevertheless, Standard & Poor's expects Abbey National to continue supporting SMA and SPL in order to maintain investment-grade ratings on the notes issued by SMA and SPI Finance PLC," said Mr. Laxton. The stable outlook reflects Abbey National's strong commitment to supporting its group's obligations in the debt markets. Standard & Poor's believes that Abbey National will act to maintain all group debt obligations within investment grade. Complete ratings information is available to subscribers of RatingsDirect, Standard & Poor's Web-based credit analysis system, at www.ratingsdirect.com. All ratings affected by this rating action can be found on Standard & Poor's public Web site at www.standardandpoors.com; under Fixed Income in the left navigation bar A set of buttons or graphic images typically in a row or column used as a central point that link you to major topic sections on a Web site. If the navigation bar is a single graphic image with multiple selections, it is known as an imagemap. See imagemap. , select Credit Ratings Actions. Alternatively, call one of Standard & Poor's Ratings Desks: London (44) 20-7847-7400; Paris (33) 1-4420-6705; Frankfurt (49) 69-33-999-223; or Stockholm (46) 8-440-5916. Members of the media may contact the Press Office Hotline on (44) 20-7826-3605 or via media_europe@standardandpoors.com. ANALYST E-MAIL ADDRESSES See Internet address. e-mail address - electronic mail address david_laxton@standardandpoors.com hans_wright@standardandpoors.com michelle_brennan@standardandpoors.com InsuranceInteractive_Europe@standardandpoors.com FIG_Europe@standardandpoors.com Copyright 2003, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services |
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