Reuters reported that Standard & Poor's plans to update its credit ratings for the world's 30 biggest banks within three weeks and may well mete out a few downgrades in the process, possibly surprising battered global bond markets.

According to Reuters, among the institutions that could be downgraded are Bank of America Corp, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley said Baylor Lancaster, an analyst at CreditSights Inc.  Spokesmen for the three banks declined to comment.

The Reuters report states that some European banks could also be affected. On November 9, S&P downgraded its scores for the health of the banking industries in a number of countries, including Denmark, Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands.