1st Horizon, NatCity, WaMu IDRs Downgraded

The long-term Issuer Default Ratings of First Horizon National Corp., National City Corp., and Washington Mutual Inc. have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings as a result of concerns about home equity portfolios. Fitch also downgraded the individual rating of Wells Fargo & Co. and placed the long-term IDRs and other ratings of Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Fifth Third Bancorp, and Sun Trust Banks Inc. and their affiliates on Rating Watch Negative in connection with its home equity concerns. It also downgraded or affirmed various other ratings of First Horizon, National City, WaMu, and Wells Fargo and their affiliates. The IDR downgrades were as follows: First Horizon, from A-minus to BBB-plus; National City, from A-plus to A; and WaMu, from A-minus to BBB. Wells Fargo's individual rating was downgraded from A to A/B. "Recent developments and information Fitch has gained from a variety of internal and external sources suggest that evidence of deterioration within home equity portfolios will clearly emerge in first-quarter 2008, which is earlier than Fitch previously expected," the rating agency said. "More important, pressures from home equity portfolios may very well exceed Fitch's expectations at the time the negative outlook was assigned to the industry [in late 2007]."