A week after S&P announced it was converting its European ratings to unsolicited as was reported previously, the rating agency now proceeds to do the same to the world's most insolvent banana republic: "Standard & Poor's Ratings Services today said it converted its issuer and issue credit ratings on the U.S. federal government (AAA/Stable/A-1+) to "unsolicited." Unsolicited as in nobody wants it. In other words, following Europe, the US will now lock out S&P in providing the agency with information. "We are converting our issuer credit ratings on the U.S. government to "unsolicited," as we do not have a rating agreement with the sovereign. Standard & Poor's will nonetheless continue to rate the U.S. government and classify the ratings as unsolicited, as we believe that we have access to sufficient public information of reliable quality to support our analysis and ongoing surveillance, and because we believe there is significant market interest in the U.S. government rating." It is a good thing then that by now everyone knows just how relevant S&P's ongoing AAA/Stable rating on the US is.

From S&P

* Standard & Poor's is converting its issuer and issue ratings on the U.S. government to "unsolicited."

* On May 24, 2011, we will withdraw all of our issue ratings on the U.S. government.

* The U.S. government unsolicited issuer credit rating will remain outstanding.

* This conversion follows previously announced conversions of Standard & Poor's issuer and issue credit ratings on seven sovereign issuers in Europe.

* New EU regulations require non-EU ratings, where relevant, to be labeled as unsolicited, in order for them to be considered endorsable into the EU for regulatory purposes.



NEW YORK (Standard & Poor's) Feb. 24, 2011--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services today said it converted its issuer and issue credit ratings on the U.S. federal government (AAA/Stable/A-1+) to "unsolicited."

This conversion follows previously announced conversions of the ratings on seven sovereigns in Europe. These actions, in turn, follow new EU regulations on credit ratings (Article 10(5) of EU Regulation 1060/2009), which address matters relating to the disclosure and presentation of credit ratings, requiring, among other things, that unsolicited credit ratings be identified as such.

We are converting our issuer credit ratings on the U.S. government to "unsolicited," as we do not have a rating agreement with the sovereign. Standard & Poor's will nonetheless continue to rate the U.S. government and classify the ratings as unsolicited, as we believe that we have access to sufficient public information of reliable quality to support our analysis and ongoing surveillance, and because we believe there is significant market interest in the U.S. government rating.

Standard & Poor's has also converted its U.S. government issue ratings to "unsolicited" and intends to withdraw these ratings on May 24, 2011.

This decision does not change Standard & Poor's view of the creditworthiness of the U.S. government. Our AAA/Stable/A-1+ ratings on the U.S. government remain unchanged.

Standard & Poor's unsolicited sovereign ratings may be based solely on publicly available information and may involve the participation of government officials. Standard & Poor's has used information from sources believed to be reliable based on standards established in our Credit Ratings Information and Data Policy, but does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy, or completeness of any information used.