International short-term credit ratings

The following ratings scale applies to foreign currency and local currency ratings. A short-term rating has a time horizon of less than 12 months for most obligations, or up to three years for US public finance securities, and thus places greater emphasis on the liquidity necessary to meet financial commitments in a timely manner.

F1 - Highest credit quality
Indicates the strongest capacity for timely payrnent of financial commitments; may have an added "+" to denote any exceptionally strong credit feature.

F2 - Good credit quality
A satisfactory capacity for timely payment of financial commitments, but the margin of safety is not as great as in the case of the higher ratings.

F3 - Fair credit quality
The capacity for timely payment of financial commitments is adequate; however, near-term adverse changes could result in a reduction to non-investment grade.

B - Speculative
Minimal capacity for timely payment of financial commitments, plus vulnerability to near-term adverse changes in financial and economic conditions.

C - High default risk
Default is a real possibility. Capacity for meeting financial commitments is solely reliant upon a sustained, favourable business and economic environment.

D - Default
Denotes actual or imminent payment default.

Notes to Long-term and Short-term ratings:

"+" or "-" may be appended to a rating to denote relative status within major rating categories. Such suffixes are not added to the 'AAA' long-term rating category, to categories below 'CCC', or to short-term ratings other than 'FI'.

'NR' indicates that Fitch IBCA does not rate the issuer or issue in question.

'Withdrawn': A rating is withdrawn when Fitch IBCA deems the amount of information available to be inadequate for rating purposes, or when an obligation matures, is called, or refinanced.

RatingAlert: Ratings are placed on RatingAlert to notify investors that there is a reasonable probability of a rating change and the likely direction of such change. These are designated as "Positive ", indicating a potential upgrade, "Negative ", for a potential downgrade, or "Evolving", if ratings may be raised, lowered or maintained. RatingAlert is typically resolved over a relatively short period.

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