Fitch Comments on Super-Senior Bonds

The presence of super-senior bonds does not change the total amount of a commercial mortgage-backed securities deal that can be rated triple-A, according to Fitch Ratings.Super-senior bonds, a subset of the AAA class, are senior to all other classes with respect to both repayment and loss, including subordinate AAA classes, the rating agency said. Super-senior bonds are different from traditional AAA classes with respect to losses. "In the unlikely event that losses were to impact a security originally rated AAA, the time-tranched AAA classes would share losses on a pro-rata basis, and the super senior AAA classes would incur losses only after the subordinate AAA classes were extinguished," Fitch said. The rating agency can be found online at http://www.fitchratings.com.