Fitch Ratings

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Fitch Ratings, Ltd. is an international credit rating agency dual-headquartered in New York City and London. It was one of the three Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations (NRSRO) designated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 1975, together with Moody's and Standard & Poor's. A.M. Best and Dominion Bond Ratings Service have subsequently joined those three as NRSROs.

The firm was founded by John Knowles Fitch on December 24, 1913 in New York City as the Fitch Publishing Company. It merged with London-based IBCA Limited in December 1997, and is majority-owned by Fimalac, a Paris, France-based holding company. In 2000 Fitch acquired both Chicago, Illinois-based Duff & Phelps Credit Rating Co. (April) and Thomson BankWatch (December). Fitch has been the smallest of the three NRSROs, covering a smaller share of the market than S&P and Moody's, though it has grown with acquisitions and frequently positions itself as a "tie-breaker" when those other two agencies have ratings similar, but not equal, in scale.

Stephen W. Joynt is Chief Executive Officer of Fitch Group, Inc. the parent company of Fitch Ratings, Algorithmics and Fitch Training. Joynt also serves as Chief Executive Officer of Algorithmics, Incoporated and as President and Chief Executive Officer of Fitch Ratings.

Robert Grossman, Nancy Stroker, Steve Joynt, and Peter Jordan constitute the management team of Fitch Ratings, Inc.

Long-Term Credit Ratings

Fitch's long-term credit ratings are set up along a scale almost identical to that used by S&P. Moody's also uses a similar scale, but names the categories differently. Like S&P, Fitch also uses intermediate ratings for each category between A and BB (i.e., BBB+, BBB and BBB-).

Investment Grade

AAA : the best quality companies, reliable and stable
AA : quality companies, a bit higher risk than AAA
A : economic situation can affect finance
BBB : medium class companies, which are satisfactory at the moment

Non-Investment Grade (also known as junk bonds)

BB : more prone to changes in the economy
B : financial situation varies noticeably
CCC : currently vulnerable and dependent on favorable economic conditions to meet its commitments
CC : highly vulnerable, very speculative bonds
C : highly vulnerable, perhaps in bankruptcy or in arrears but still continuing to pay out on obligations
D : has defaulted on obligations and Fitch believes that it will generally default on most or all obligations
NR : not rated

Short-Term Credit Ratings

Fitch's short-term ratings indicate the potential level of default within a 12-month period. A "+" or "-" may be appended to a rating to denote relative status within the category.

F1 : best quality grade, indicating strong capacity of obligor to meet its financial commitment
F2 : good quality grade with satisfactory capacity of obligor to meet its finacial commitment
F3 : fair quality grade with adequate capacity of obligor to meet its financial commitment but near term adverse conditions could impact the obligor's commitments
B : of speculative nature and obligor has minimal capacity to meet its commitment and vulnerability to short term adverse changes in financial and economic conditions
C : possibility of default is high and the financial commitment of the obligor are dependent upon sustained, favourable business and economic conditions
D : the obligor is in default as it has failed on its financial commitments.

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