Rating Agencies downgrade Citigroup and Goldman, upgrade Merrill Lynch

December 18, 2008 (US Eastern Time), Moody’ s Investors Service Inc. (Moody’ s) lowered ratings for Citigroup Inc. to A2 (stable outlook) from Aa3 (negative outlook).

December 19, 2008 (US Eastern Time), Standard & Poor’ s Ratings Services (S&P’ s) lowered ratings for Citigroup Inc. to A (stable outlook) from AA- (negative outlook). Citigroup’ s credit ratings apply to Allegro International Corporation S.A., one of the notes issuers of Citibank (China) Co., Ltd. QDII structured notes product. The downgrade reflects Moody’ s & S&P’ s view that Citigroup’ s capital ratio will remain low. A2 (Moody’ s) & A (S&P) are considered to be investment grade. Notes’ pricing and repayment are not affected by the downgrade.

December 16, 2008 (US Eastern Time), Moody’ s Investors Service Inc. (Moody’ s) lowered ratings for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (Goldman) to A1 (stable outlook) from Aa3 (negative outlook).

December 19, 2008 (US Eastern Time), Standard & Poor’ s Ratings Services (S&P’ s) lowered ratings for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to A (negative outlook) from AA- (negative outlook). Goldman’ s credit ratings apply to Goldman Sachs International, one of the notes issuers of Citibank (China) Co., Ltd. QDII structured notes product. The downgrade reflects Moody’ s & S&P’ s view that Goldman’ s capital ratio will remain low. A1 (Moody’ s) & A (S&P) are considered to be investment grade. Notes’ pricing and repayment are not affected by the downgrade.

January 6, 2009 (US Eastern Time), Standard & Poor’ s Ratings Services (S&P’ s) raised ratings on Merrill Lynch Co, Ltd. (Merrill) to A+ (negative outlook) from A (negative outlook). Merrill’ s credit ratings apply to the notes issued by Merrill, which are underlyings for some of Citibank (China) Co., Ltd. QDII structured notes products. The upgrade reflects S&P’ s view of Merrill’ s ability of debt repayment. A+ (S&P) is considered to be investment grade.