Fitch Downgrades Over $1B of Subprime Classes

Nearly 50 classes of subprime residential mortgage-backed securities with outstanding balances totaling more than $1 billion were downgraded by Fitch Ratings on Aug. 8.Fitch also affirmed the ratings on classes with outstanding balances of more than $8.5 billion. Among the downgrades were 42 classes from five issues of Long Beach Mortgage Loan Trust asset-backed certificates. Fitch reported that as of the end of the day on Aug. 8, it had downgraded 546 classes (with an outstanding balance of $10 billion) from subprime RMBS deals placed Under Analysis on July 12 and affirmed the ratings on 1,009 classes with an outstanding balance of $86 billion.