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Fitch Affirms Oriental Bank & Trust's FDIC Guaranteed Debt at 'AAA/F1+'

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^{Published in Business and Finance on Tuesday, June 21st 2011 at 13:50 GMT by Market Wire}  

NEW YORK--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--Fitch Ratings has affirmed Oriental Bank & Trust's ratings assigned to debt issued through the FDIC Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program (TLGP) at 'AAA/F1+'. Specifically, Oriental Bank & Trust, a subsidiary of Oriental Financial Group Inc. (NYSE: OFG), issued $105 million of fixed rate senior unsecured debt under the TLGP. The debt issuance will mature in February 2012.

Obligations under the TLGP program bear the full faith and credit of the U.S. Government, hence these issues are rated the same as the U.S. sovereign long-term and short-term foreign currency at 'AAA/F1+', respectively. The FDIC guarantee expires at the earlier of the instrument's maturity or by June 30, 2012.

Fitch affirms the following ratings:

Oriental Bank & Trust Company debt issued under the FDIC TLGP:

--Long-term FDIC guaranteed debt at 'AAA';

--Short-term FDIC guaranteed debt at 'F1+'.

Additional information is available at '[ www.fitchratings.com ]'.

Applicable Criteria and Related Research:

--'Sovereign Rating Methodology', dated Aug. 16, 2010.

Applicable Criteria and Related Research:

Sovereign Rating Methodology

[ http://www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/reports/report_frame.cfm?rpt_id=547765 ]

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