LENEXA, Kansas -- Standard and Poor's rating agency announced that it has dropped U.S Central's rating to AA+, its second highest from AAA, its highest. "Wells Fargo is the only other AAA rating," said U.S. Central Executive Vice President Dave Dickens, about the change. "U.S. Central now has an AA+ along with Bank of America, and US Bank."
The change follows yesterday's report by Bloomberg news, which said that U.S. Central suffered a 2% loss on its total assets by taking a $760 million 4th-quarter write down, which Dickens termed inaccurate. "They've mixed up accounting methods," Dickens told Credit Union Times. "Those are mark-to-market securities that we hold for sale that need to be shown on the balance sheet. "If we had to sell our total mark-to-market $40 billion portfolio its value would be $1.1 billion less than what we paid for it. While everyone is looking at the difficulties in fixed income securities today, unlike banks, we have ample liquidity."
