Fitch Releases Latin American Structured Finance 2009 Review and Credit Outlook Report.CHICAGO -- In a special report published Jan. 23, 2009, 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. comments on expectations that 2009 will be a challenging year for Latin American Structured Finance. Effects from the recession in the global economy are increasingly being seen in Latin America Latin America, the Spanish-speaking, Portuguese-speaking, and French-speaking countries (except Canada) of North America, South America, Central America, and the West Indies. and have eroded the argument for decoupling Decoupling The occurrence of returns on asset classes diverging from their normal pattern of correlation. Notes: Take for example stock and corporate bond returns, which normally rise and fall together. that was common a year ago. The report describes how in the past three or four years, Latin America witnessed significant credit growth in most segments of the economy, from consumers to corporates. The 2008 market turmoil that followed and the ensuing liquidity crisis created dislocations to varying degrees across the major structured finance markets. Although certain individual market sectors remain resistant, such as cross border future flows and Mexican bank originated residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS RMBS Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities RMBS Rambus, Inc. (NASDAQ stock symbol) RMBS Russian Mortgage-Backed Securities ), no major sector is expected to be completely immune from the turbulence in the financial markets. Despite the global backdrop, when defined by the number of ratings actions, 2008 was a relatively balanced year in Latin America. Fitch affirmed approximately 616 tranches from its securitization Securitization The process of creating a financial instrument by combining other financial assets and then marketing them to investors. Notes: Mortgage backed securities are a perfect example of securitization. May also be spelled as "securitisation. portfolio, upgraded 44 and downgraded 61. The region remains quite diverse economically, and as a result, upgrades and downgrades occur for differing reasons that are explored in greater detail in the report. Overall, recognizing the regional challenges exacerbated by a subdued sub·due tr.v. sub·dued, sub·du·ing, sub·dues 1. To conquer and subjugate; vanquish. See Synonyms at defeat. 2. To quiet or bring under control by physical force or persuasion; make tractable. 3. capital market, lower commodity prices and limited growth, Fitch expects Latin America to have an increase in the ratio of negative to positive rating actions in 2009 compared with 2008. The report focuses on the four largest capital markets in Latin America: the international cross border market and the local markets of Mexico, Argentina and Brazil. It concludes with a general comment on the pressures facing emerging market sovereigns. The report, titled '2009 Latin American Structured Finance Review and Outlook' can be found on the Fitch website 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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