S&P says chance of US bank downgrades has increased

NEW YORK, April 28 (Reuters) - Standard & Poor's on Monday said the chance of rating downgrades to large U.S. banks has increased over the past two weeks and their current high ratings have little cushion for volatile earnings.

"If this credit cycle becomes more extreme than prior cycles, which promises to be the case for the mortgage sectors, we could lower ratings for at least some of these institutions," S&P said in a statement. (Reporting by Dena Aubin; Editing by James Dalgleish)