Following its monthly surveillance review in October, Fitch Ratings identified 50 of its $234 billion U.S. ABS student loan deals as 'Under Analysis', indicating that Fitch will be issuing a rating action within 30 days. Three hundred and fourteen FFELP student loan deals were designated with a SMARTView date of Oct. 7, 2008, indicating that no immediate action is necessary. 28 deals remain on 'Under Analysis' awaiting additional analysis or information.
SMARTView, a recent addition to Fitch's Structured Finance Surveillance, Metrics, Analytics, Research, and Tools (SMART) products, monitors collateral performance in structured finance bonds providing investors greater insight to Fitch's internal analytic screening process and furthers transparency by publicly identifying the deals that Fitch has identified as requiring an immediate review. To review a list of deals Under Analysis use the following link (accessible to all users of the Fitch web site):
www.fitchratings.com/smartview
As Fitch receives monthly information on structured finance transactions from trustees and servicers, Fitch analysts run the data through various internal algorithms that identify classes of a transaction as possible candidates for upgrade or downgrade. Fitch's analysts scrutinize the output to decide which deals need a formal review, which are noted as 'Under Analysis', and those deals which can be given a SMARTView date. SMARTView is available on the Fitch Ratings web site at www.fitchratings.com along with the report titled 'SMARTView, Fitch U.S. Structured Finance Monthly Public Reviews'.
Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. 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.
Contacts:
Mary MacNeill, +1-212-908-0785
Stefanie
Leung, +1-212-908-0826
Media Relations:
Sandro Scenga,
+1-212-908-0278
