Fitch Updates Criteria for U.S. Tobacco Settlement Asset-Backed Bonds.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 has updated its criteria for U.S. Tobacco Settlement Asset-Backed Bonds as a result of Fitch's upgrade of the corporate rating of the domestic tobacco industry to 'BBB' from 'BBB-' with a Stable Outlook on August 29, 2007. The upgrade and Stable Outlook reflect the operational and financial improvements of the major industry participants over the past two years and the continued manageability of litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. risk. In September, Fitch placed 261 tobacco settlement asset-backed securities Asset-backed security A security that is collateralized by loans, leases, receivables, or installment contracts on personal property, not real estate. asset-backed security A debt security collateralized by specific assets. on Rating Watch Positive. Since Fitch's rating of tobacco settlement bonds is directly linked to Fitch's corporate rating of the tobacco industry, with a maximum attainable rating of one notch above the tobacco industry rating, the maximum attainable rating for tobacco settlement bonds has moved to 'BBB+' from 'BBB'. The updated criteria report includes cash flow stress assumptions and population stresses which have been revised to incorporate some of the same developments that led to the industry upgrade. For more information about these recent developments, see the August 29th press release titled 'Fitch Affirms Altria's L-T IDR IDR In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the Indonesian Rupiah. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. at 'BBB+'; Places Phillip Morris Intl's Rating on Watch Positive', the September 12th press release titled 'Fitch Places 260 Tobacco Settlement Asset-Backed Bonds on Rating Watch Positive', and the September 14th press release titled 'Fitch Places Badger Tobacco Settlement ABS Series 2002 on Rating Watch Positive', all available on the 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. 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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