Banco Santander Chile Announces That Fitch Affirms The Foreign Long-term Issuer Default Rating at 'A+'

SANTIAGO, Chile, June 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Banco Santander Chile (NYSE: BSAC; SSE: Bsantander) announces that Fitch Ratings affirmed the foreign currency long-term issuer default rating at 'A+'. SAN Chile's Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) and Viability Rating (VR) and National Scale Ratings remain driven by its 'a+' VR. They do not factor any support from our main shareholder.

According to Fitch:

"SAN Chile's IDRs, National Ratings and VR reflect its market-leadership position and its strong franchise within Chile, whose economy continues to perform well. The ratings also reflect the healthy asset quality, strong profitability and independent management, funding and capital positions. Liquidity has been significantly strengthened and SAN Chile benefits from a sizeable, historically stable, and well-diversified retail deposit base. In addition, SAN Chile has significantly reduced refinancing risk and exposure to more price-sensitive deposits by building a liquidity cushion while maintaining access to local capital markets without any apparent rise in funding costs"

Fitch has revised the Outlook on SAN Chile's international long-term IDR and long-term National to Negative from Stable.

For the full report please see:
http://www.fitchratings.cl/Noticia.asp?Id_Noticia=3854&Id_Resumen=&Id_Grupo=&Id_TipoOpcion=&Id_Empresa=&Glosa=&Pagina=

Institutional Background

As per the latest public records published by the Superintendency of Banks of Chile for March 2012, Banco Santander Chile was the largest bank in terms of loans and equity. The Bank has one of the highest credit ratings among all Latin American companies, with an A+ rating from Fitch, A from Standard and Poor's and Aa3 by Moody's. The stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BSAC) and the Santiago Stock Exchange (SSE: Bsantander). The Bank's main shareholder is Santander, which controls 67% of Banco Santander Chile.  

For more information see www.santander.cl