Fitch Ratings on Friday followed on the heels of Moody's Investors Service and cut the credit rating of Clydesdale Bank. Fitch justified the cut on the grounds that the strategic importance of its UK offshoot to NAB may be "diminishing slightly".The ratings agency cited "more stringent regulation and a less favourable economic environment in the UK" that, it argued, may mean that "UK banking has become less attractive to foreign banks."Operating conditions are also relevant to its rethink.Fitch wrote that Clydesdale's commercial and business lending were "more vulnerable in an anaemic economy" and also said that it expected impairment charges to "remain high relative to earnings".In response, on Friday, Clydesdale simply issued a statement reprising the one-sentence retort issued in connection with the Moody's downgrade on Wednesday: namely that "its support to its UK business is unchanged."