Fitch Downgrades Over $2B of Subprime Classes

Over 100 classes of subprime residential mortgage-backed securities with outstanding balances totaling more than $2 billion were downgraded by Fitch Ratings on Aug. 9.Fitch also affirmed the ratings on classes with outstanding balances of more than $18 billion. Among the downgrades were the following mortgage pass-through certificates: 48 classes from 11 SAIL issues; 42 classes from six Structured Asset Securities Corp. issues; and 11 classes from two BNC issues. Fitch reported that as of the end of the day on Aug. 9, it had downgraded 671 classes (with an outstanding balance of $12 billion) from subprime RMBS deals placed Under Analysis on July 12 and affirmed the ratings on 1,189 classes with an outstanding balance of $104 billion. Fitch can be found on the Web at http://www.fitchratings.com.