Fitch Releases U.S. Term Credit Action Report July 2008

Wednesday, 27 August, 2008

Fitch Ratings recently published its latest U.S. Term Credit Action Report July 2008.

Rating Action Highlights Include:

In July 2008, Fitch issued five upgrades and 10 downgrades compared with four upgrades and 40 downgrades in the prior month. For the seven months through July 2008, Fitch has issued 271 upgrades and 793 downgrades compared with 133 upgrades and 35 downgrades during the same period last year. The majority of the negative rating actions so far this year were attributable to downgrades of financial guarantors.
 
Positive rating activity in July 2008 took place in the equipment lease (one) and auto loan (four) sectors, reflecting stable collateral performance and credit enhancement levels. During the same period, downgrades took place in the aircraft (eight) and small business (two) sectors.
 
In July, as part of its ongoing surveillance of existing transactions, Fitch affirmed 149 ratings in the student loan (eight), auto loan (24), equipment loans (two), small business loans (four), new assets (six), structured debt (four), airplane loans (54), and dealer floor plan (47) sectors.

Fitch expects the proportion of upgrades to downgrades to remain under pressure relative to strong ratings performance experienced over the past three years due to economic concerns.

For further details see the 'Term ABS Credit Action Report: July 2008' available on the Fitch Ratings. The Credit Action Report now incorporates hyperlinks giving investors easy access to press releases and to ratings history on the Fitch Ratings web site.

Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use of such ratings are available on the agency's Fitch Rating. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site.

Source: http://www.marketwatch.com