Fitch Ratings has downgraded 748 bonds in 479 residential mortgage-backed securities transactions to ‘D’, indicating that the bonds have taken principal writedowns.
All the bonds in question had ratings of ‘CCC’, ‘CC’ or ‘C’, indicating that a default was expected. Three hundred and seventy-five of the bonds downgraded are backed by subprime credit mortgages, 177 are backed by alternative A credit mortgages, 123 are backed by second-lien loans, 72 are scratch and dent transactions and the balance are other types of transactions.
