S&P downgrades Greece

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services lowered its "CC" long-term and "C" short-term sovereign credit ratings on the Hellenic Republic (Greece) to "SD" (selective default).

Our recovery rating of "4" on Greece's foreign-currency issue ratings is unchanged. Our country transfer and convertibility (T&C) assessment for Greece, as for all other eurozone members, remains "AAA".

We lowered our sovereign credit ratings on Greece to "SD" following the Greek government's retroactive insertion of collective action clauses (CACs) in the documentation of certain series of its sovereign debt on February 23, 2012. The effect of a CAC is to bind all bondholders of a particular series to amended bond payment terms in the event that a predefined quorum of creditors has agreed to do so.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9110049/SandP-downgrades-Greece-the-full-text.html