DBRS Revises State Street’s Support Assessment to SA2 from SA3, Ratings Unaffected

DBRS has today revised the support assessment for State Street Corporation (State Street or the Company) and State Street Bank and Trust Company, its primary bank subsidiary, to SA2 from SA3, which reflects DBRS’s designation of the Company as a critically important banking organization (CIB) in the United States. Today’s action has no effect on the current ratings of the Company or related entities. State Street’s Issuer & Senior Debt rating remains at AA (low). The trend on State Street’s long-term ratings and the R-1 (high) rating on the Short-Term instruments of its bank subsidiary remains Negative where they were placed on January 21, 2009. The trend on State Street’s Short-Term Instruments, rated R-1 (middle), remains Stable.

This action follows DBRS’s introduction of a floor rating and the designation of State Street as one of eight CIBs that are now subject to the floor rating. In the United States, the floor rating for banks and their key operating businesses is A (high) and R-1 (middle); for bank holding companies (BHCs), it is “A” and R-1 (middle). The trend for the floor ratings is Stable. While DBRS has not previously ascribed any uplift to bank intrinsic assessments from U.S. government support as indicated by an SA3, establishing the floor ratings reflects the escalation of support for certain large banking organizations that are critically important to the functioning of the U.S. financial markets and maintaining the flow of credit.

For more information on the introduction of the floor ratings concept, please see the press release published earlier today entitled “DBRS Announces Introduction of Floor Ratings, a Refinement of the Approach to Intrinsic and Support Assessments,” which is available at www.dbrs.com.

Notes:
The applicable methodologies are Rating Banks and Bank Holding Companies Operating in the United States and Enhanced Methodology for Bank Ratings – Intrinsic and Support Assessments, which can be found on our website under Methodologies.

This is a Corporate (Financial Institutions) rating.