S&P cuts ratings on big banks after criteria change

By David Henry

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Standard & Poor's reduced its credit ratings on 15 big banking companies, mostly in the Europe and the United States, on Tuesday as the result of a sweeping overhaul of its ratings criteria.

JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM), Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC), Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C), Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC), Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), Barclays Plc (LSE:BARC.L), HSBC Holdings Plc, (LSE:HSBA.L) Royal Bank of Scotland (AAHAUS.UL) Group Plc and UBS AG (VTX:UBSN.VX), were among the banks that had their ratings reduced by one notch each. A notch is one third of a letter rating.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/p-cuts-ratings-big-banks-012306014.html