A blow to certification credibility from within

I recently received a newsletter that is sent to training providers of the ISTQB. It was rather interesting as it gave a detailed results table of the pass fail rate in Australia by training provider. But the information I found most interesting was an analysis of recent Advanced level exam results. along with the news that the ISTQB made the decision to increase the examination time for Advanced level courses.
"At the meeting the Advanced Level examinations
were discussed at length and a decision was taken
to increase the Examination time from 2 to 3 hours.
Please ensure that all of your Advanced candidates
are aware of this significant change."
I see this as a real blow to the advanced level certifications and was surprised that it came from the board. The reason i say its a blow is because I feel that perhaps the time was increased to fix the extremely poor success rates for advanced level courses. Something that I felt gave them credibility.

Below is the table of the results.

Training Provider League Table from 01/01/2008 to 03/04/2009
These statistics are based on ANZTB foundation exams only.

Trainer	Pass Rate	Total Exams
Equinox	95%	40
Other *	86%	872
Revolution IT	92%	458
Planit	92%	51
Software Education	87%	89
The Testing Consultancy	96%	46

* Other relates to candidates who sat public exams.

Training Provider League Table from 01/01/2008 to 21/04/09
These statistics are based on ANZTB Advanced exams only.

Trainer	Pass Rate	Total Exams
Equinox	33%	6
Other *	46%	48
Disqover	100%	4
Planit	61%	76
Software Education	63%	19

* Other relates to candidates who sat public exams.

Another interesting stat is that the ANZTB gains $300 per foundation exam. With 1556 exams in the past 15 months the ANZTB has made $466800. Not bad for an organisation that gives the impression of being a reputable not for profit group similar to the ACS.