89YE Lloyds Bk. 43

RNS Number:2034W
BBK (B.S.C.)
08 May 2007






Fitch Upgrades BBK's Long Term Issuer Default Rating and Support Rating

On 15 November 2006, Fitch Ratings, a well known international credit rating
agency has upgraded BBK's long term Issuer Default Rating to A- (A minus) from
BBB+. The Support Rating has also been upgraded from '2' to '1'. The Short-term
Rating of 'F2' and Individual rating 'C' are affirmed at the existing levels. A
number of other leading banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council ("GCC" - Bahrain,
Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) region have also
been upgraded simultaneously.

The upgrade has occurred as a result of Fitch updating its view of support
across the six countries of the GCC region. The update affirms and strengthens
Fitch's long-held view that the probability of support for the GCC banks is very
high based on examples of past support, the small number of banks in most
systems, often with significant market shares, and the prevalence of government
stakes. "What has changed is the significant improvement in public finances
reflected in stronger Sovereign ratings, which has given the GCC governments a
greater ability to support more banks to a higher rating level, and which in
turn has reinforced our confidence in the governments' propensity to do so,"
says Robert Thursfield, Director in Fitch's Financial Institutions Group. Fitch
rates around 50 banks across the GCC in addition to the Bahrain, Kuwait and
Saudi Arabian Sovereigns and is the only rating agency to have a distinct
Support rating scale. The scale ranges from '1' denoting an extremely high
probability of support to '5' denoting that support cannot be relied upon.




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