DBRS Finalizes AAA Rating of The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s FDIC Guaranteed Issuance

DBRS has today finalized the AAA rating of the $5.0 billion 3.250% senior notes, due June 15, 2012 (the Notes) issued by The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (Goldman). The Notes are issued pursuant to the Prospectus, dated October 10, 2008; the Senior Debt Indenture, dated July 16, 2008 and the Prospectus Supplement, dated November 25, 2008. The AAA rating is based on the explicit guarantee provided by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program (TLGP) and is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. Under the TLGP, the FDIC guarantees payment of qualifying debt issued by eligible U.S. bank holding companies, such as The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.

The AAA rating reflects DBRS’s opinion as to the guarantor’s ability to honor the guarantee as determined by DBRS’s internal assessment of the sovereign. All other debt ratings, including Goldman’s AA (low) Issuer & Senior Debt ratings remain at their current levels. The trend on all long-term non-guaranteed ratings remains Negative, where they were placed on September 17, 2008.

Note:
All figures are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted.

The applicable methodology is Rating Banks and Bank Holding Companies Operating in the United States, which can be found on our web site under Methodologies.

This is a Corporate (Financial Institutions) rating.