S&P's Cuts Ratings Of Eight Big U.S. Banks

(RTTNews) - JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and Citigroup Inc. (C) are among eight large U.S. banks that have credit grades cut one level by Standard & Poor's on the prospect that the U.S. government is less likely to provide aid in a crisis.

"we now consider the likelihood that the U.S. government would provide extraordinary support to its banking system to be "uncertain" and are removing the uplift based on government support from our ratings," S&P's said.

S&P lowered its long-term issuer credit, senior unsecured, and nondeferrable subordinated debt ratings, after placing the companies on negative credit watch last month, according to a statement Wednesday. The banks affected also include Wells Fargo & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, Bank of New York Mellon Corp. and State Street Corp.