DBRS Assigns Provisional Rating of AAA to New York Community Bank’s Issuance of Senior Notes

DBRS has today assigned a provisional rating of AAA to the $512 million of 3% Senior Bank Notes due December, 2011 issued by New York Community Bank. The Senior Notes are being issued pursuant to a Draft Preliminary Offering Circular dated December, 2008.

The provisional AAA rating is based on the explicit guarantee provided by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program (TLGP), which 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 and banks, such as New York Community Bank.

The AAA rating reflects DBRS’s opinion as to the guarantor’s ability to honor the guarantee as determined by internal assessment of the sovereign. All other debt ratings, including New York Community Bank’s A (low) Deposits & Senior Debt, remain at their current levels. All long-term non-guaranteed ratings remain on Stable trend.

Finalization of the rating is contingent upon receipt of final documents conforming to information already received.

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

This is a Corporate (Financial Institutions) rating.