Standard & Poor’s placed the Bank’s long-term rating under review

Banca popolare dell’Emilia Romagna informs that on July 12th 2013, the rating agency Standard & Poor’s has placed BPER’s long-term counterparty credit rating on CreditWatch with negative implications, as a consequence of the one-notch lowering of the Italian long-term sovereign credit rating to “BBB”.

Standard and Poor’s placed on CreditWatch with negative implications the “BB+” long-term rating on BPER. At the same time Standard and Poor’s affirmed short-term rating at “B”.

Standard and Poor’s intends to resolve the CreditWatch on BPER over the coming weeks once the conclusion of the review of the impact of the factors behind the sovereign rating action on economic and industry risks affecting the Italian banking industry and how this affects the rating on the bank.

The original text of the press release published by Standard & Poor’s is available on the rating agency’s web site (www.standardandpoors.com).