OREANDA-NEWS. S&P Global Ratings said today that it had affirmed its 'A/A-1' long - and short-term counterparty credit ratings on three France-based regional banks: Banque Kolb S. A., Banque Tarneaud S. A., and Banque Rhone Alpes S. A. These banks are subsidiaries of the French bank Credit du Nord S. A. (A/Stable/A-1), which, in turn, is fully owned by French Banking group Societe Generale (A/Stable/A-1).

At the request of the three regional banks, we subsequently withdrew our counterparty credit ratings and our ratings on their debt programs (senior unsecured and certificates of deposit). The outlook on the three banks was stable at the time of the withdrawal.

RATIONALE

The affirmation reflected our view of the core strategic status of Banque Kolb, Banque Tarneaud, and Banque Rhone Alpes to the Societe Generale group. Given that the status remains unchanged, according to our group rating methodology, we kept the ratings on these three subsidiaries equalized with the group credit profile (GCP) of Societe Generale.

The stable outlooks on Banque Kolb, Banque Tarneaud, and Banque Rhone Alpes mirrored that on Societe Generale.

Of note, the withdrawals do not affect our long - and short-term counterparty credit ratings on the parent bank Credit du Nord S. A. We view Credit du Nord as a core entity of Societe Generale.