DBRS assigns AAA rating to Banco Popular Español Government Guaranteed Debt Issuance

DBRS has today assigned a rating of AAA to the EUR 1.5 billion 3.0% Senior Notes due 23 February 2012 (the Notes) issued by Banco Popular Español S.A. (Popular or the Group). The AAA rating is based on the explicit guarantee provided by the Kingdom of Spain. As such, the rating of the Notes reflects the government’s ability to honor this guarantee as determined by DBRS’s internal assessment of the sovereign. All other debt ratings, including Popular’s Senior Debt & Deposit ratings of “AA” remain at their current levels. The trend on all long-term non-guaranteed ratings remains Negative, where they were placed on 29 January 2009.

Note:
All figures are in Euros unless otherwise noted.

The applicable methodologies are, Analytical Background and Methodology for European Bank Ratings, Second Edition 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.