DBRS Assigns New Rating of AAA to SunTrust Banks Inc’s FDIC Guaranteed Issuance of Senior Notes

DBRS has today assigned a new rating of AAA to SunTrust Banks Inc’s $576 million issuance of One Month LIBOR senior unsecured notes due May 7, 2012. The AAA ratings are 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, such as SunTrust Banks, Inc.

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 SunTrust Banks Inc’s A (high) Issuer & Senior Debt rating, remain at their current levels. All long-term, non-guaranteed ratings remain on Under Review with Negative Implications where they were placed on January 29, 2009.

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

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.