In Brief: Cityscape's S&P Rating Drops to 'Negative'

Cityscape Financial Corp. has taken another knock, a downgrade to "negative" from "stable" by Standard & Poor's Corp.

Steep competition in the subprime mortgage market, "aggressive" expansion into the United Kingdom, and considerable growth in highly leveraged loans spurred the shift, said S&P analyst Lisa J. Archinow.

S&P's move came almost two months after Cityscape, based in Elmsford, N.Y., reported its first earnings decline and received a downgrade by Moody's Investors Service because of seriously delinquent loans.

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