Fitch Places Metris ABS Seller/Servicer Ratings on Rating Watch Positive.NEW YORK New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of -- Fitch Ratings Fitch Ratings An international rating agency for financial institutions, insurance companies, and corporate, sovereign, and municipal debt. Fitch Ratings has headquarters in New York and London and is wholly owned by FIMALAC of Paris. has placed Direct Merchants Credit Card Bank, N.A. (DMCCB) and its parent, Metris Companies Inc. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :MXT (Memory eXpansion Technology) A memory expansion technique introduced by IBM in 2002 for its Intel-based xSeries servers. Using a hardware compression algorithm, MXT doubles the amount of main memory in the computer. It is also available for licensing to other vendors. ) (collectively, Metris) a combined ABPS/S3-minus (Full Approval) ABS seller/servicer rating on Rating Watch Positive for credit card origination and servicing. The Rating Watch Positive status reflects the potential improvement in the financial condition component of Metris' seller/servicer rating following HSBC Finance Corporation's announced acquisition of Metris Companies Inc. (parent of DMCCB). Fitch's Financial Institutions Group has affirmed HSBC Finance Corporation's 'AA-' rating and has placed Metris' 'B-' rating on Rating Watch Positive pending the acquisition. Fitch anticipates that upon completion of the acquisition in fourth-quarter 2005, Metris' seller/servicer rating would be upgraded by one notch or more depending on the level of integration with HSBC's card operations, and other factors. Fitch rates ABS seller/servicers on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 (no '1 plus') being the highest rating. Within each of these rating levels, Fitch further differentiates ratings by plus (+) and minus (-) as well as the flat rating. For further information about Fitch ABS seller/servicer ratings, refer to the report titled 'ABS Seller/Servicer Rating: Credit Where Credit Is Due,' dated Sept. 14, 2004, and 'ABS Seller/Servicer Rating: Credit Card Addendum,' dated Dec. 4, 2004, both of which are available on the Fitch Ratings web site at www.fitchratings.com. Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use Terms of Use are rules set up by the owner of an intellectual property or service to govern how they may be legally used. In many cases, terms of service are used as a contractual agreement between a company and users of a service they provide. 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 Policies and Procedures are a set of documents that describe an organization's policies for operation and the procedures necessary to fulfill the policies. They are often initiated because of some external requirement, such as environmental compliance or other governmental are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site. |
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