ֳ

Rating Action Commentary

ֳ Revisions to Rating Definitions: Sovereign Implications

Thu 09 Apr, 2009 - 4:02 PM ET

ֳ-New York-09 April 2009: Following the completion of a review and subsequent revision of rating definitions announced in March 2009 (see 'Revisions to Ratings Definitions/Global Criteria Report'), ֳ is withdrawing and will no longer assign Recovery Ratings to sovereign debt instruments. The change brings the sovereign ratings in line with ֳ's International and U.S. public finance ratings, which reflects the limited default and hence recovery experience of sovereign and public finance issuers. The Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) of sovereign governments are unaffected by these revisions.

Recovery ratings on approximately USD111.1 billion of sovereign debt instruments have been withdrawn. The long-term bond ratings on USD0.3 billion of so-called 'Brady bonds' (sovereign bonds that are partially collateralized by U.S. Treasury bonds) that are not currently in default have been revised accordingly. Similarly, the ratings on approximately USD13.3 billion of non-performing bonds issued by Argentina and Ecuador have been revised to 'D' as a result of the withdrawal of recovery ratings. Details of the bonds affected by this change are included in the attached spreadsheet.

Contact: Theresa Paiz Fredel +1-212-908-0534, New York or David Riley +44-207-417-4242, London.

Media Relations: Sandro Scenga, New York, Tel: +1 212-908-0278, Email: sandro.scenga@fitchratings.com.

ֳ's rating definitions and the terms of use of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, ''. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. ֳ's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site.

PARTICIPATION STATUS

The rated entity (and/or its agents) or, in the case of structured finance, one or more of the transaction parties participated in the rating process except that the following issuer(s), if any, did not participate in the rating process, or provide additional information, beyond the issuer’s available public disclosure.

Solicitation Status

The ratings above were solicited and assigned or maintained at the request of the rated entity/issuer or a related third party. Any exceptions follow below.

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ֳ's approach to ratings endorsement so that ratings produced outside the EU may be used by regulated entities within the EU for regulatory purposes, pursuant to the terms of the EU Regulation with respect to credit rating agencies, can be found on the EU Regulatory Disclosures page. The endorsement status of all International ratings is provided within the entity summary page for each rated entity and in the transaction detail pages for all structured finance transactions on the ֳ website. These disclosures are updated on a daily basis.