Moody's and Standard & Poor's place Merita and Nordbanken on watchlist for possib

Moody's and Standard & Poor's place Merita and Nordbanken on watchlist for possible upgrading The American credit rating institutions, Moody's and Standard & Poor's, have announced that they are considering upgrading both Merita Bank's and Nordbanken's credit ratings for long-term debt at the same time when ratings for short-term debt are confirmed at the level of P-1/A-1. Moody's Investors Service is also considering upgrading the banks' financial strength ratings. The reason for this is the merger between MeritaNordbanken Group and Unidanmark Group and the positive implications the merger is expected to create. The present ratings granted by Moody's Investors Service for Merita Bank's long-term debt /financial strength are A1/C and for Nordbanken A1/C+ respectively, whereas Standard & Poor's has granted a credit rating 'A' for both banks. At the same time the third leading international credit rating institution, FitchIBCA, has announced that it will confirm the present short-term and long-term ratings for both Merita Bank and Nordbanken as F1/A+. Further information: Jakob Grinbaum, Executive Vice President, Treasury, tel. +46 8 614 7891 Erik Evrén, Press Relation Manager tel. +46 8 614 8611 Lauri Peltola, Press Relation Manager tel. +358 9 1654 2324 ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/03/09/20000309BIT00610/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/03/09/20000309BIT00610/bit0002.pdf