S&P Downgrades 3,700+ Subprime Classes

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has downgraded 3,787 classes from U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities that are collateralized by first-lien subprime mortgage loans rated between January 2006 and June 2007. S&P also announced that 2,602 classes of comparable subprime RMBS have been placed on CreditWatch with negative implications. The rating agency also placed 1,953 classes from 572 global collateralized debt obligations of asset-backed securities and CDO of CDO transactions on CreditWatch negative. The affected U.S. RMBS classes represent approximately $270.1 billion of securities, or approximately 47% of the par amount of U.S. RMBS backed by first-lien subprime mortgage loans rated by S&P during 2006 and the first half of 2007. The rating agency can be found online at http://www.standardandpoors.com.