S&P lowers some debt on 8 U.S. banks

Standard & Poor's said it took actions on eight U.S. global systemically important banks.

The agency said it lowered the ratings on the long-term issuer credit senior unsecured and non-deferrable subordinated debt on Bank of America Corp., Bank of New York Mellon Corp., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley, State Street Corp., Goldman Sachs Group and Wells Fargo & Co.

The ratings also were removed from CreditWatch, where they were placed Nov. 2 with negative implications.

The outlooks on all eight companies are stable.

The agency also said it lowered the short-term rating on the non-operating holding companies of JPMorgan Chase & Co. to A-2 from A-1.

S&P said it affirmed the short-term issuer credit ratings on the other seven non-operating holding companies of the banks.

The issuer credit ratings and senior unsecured debt ratings on the core and highly strategic operating subsidiaries of Bank of America, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs remain on CreditWatch with positive implications, reflecting a possible additional one-notch upgrade once sufficient clarity is revealed by regulators on which instruments will count toward total loss-absorbing capacity, the agency said.

The ratings on the core and highly strategic operating subsidiaries of Bank of New York Mellon, JPMorgan Chase, State Street and Wells Fargo are unchanged.

The outlooks remain stable.

The rating actions reflect a revised assessment of the U.S. government's likelihood of providing extraordinary support to the banking system to uncertain from supportive, S&P said.

The U.S. resolution framework is now effective, which implies that the probability that a U.S. systemically important bank would receive extraordinary government support if it came under stress is lower, the agency said.

Although, the possibility still exists that one of those banks could receive extraordinary government support if an orderly liquidation proved more disruptive than expected, but the certainty of that has declined, S&P said.

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