Bangkok--20 Dec--Fitch Ratings Fitch Ratings noted in a just published report that it expects a generally stable outlook for structured finance sectors across Asia Pacific in 2008, despite the financial market dislocation stemming from problems in the US subprime housing sector. The trend of increasing delinquency rates in RMBS will continue to be seen in Australia and New Zealand, but ratings in both markets should remain stable with few or no downgrades expected. With overall Australian RMBS issuance volumes expected to fall in 2008, other asset classes such as auto receivables, CMBS and balance sheet CLOs are likely to come up to the fore, due to a combination of the introduction of Basel II and mortgage lenders looking to diversify their assets. Japan's structured finance sector experienced more upgrades than downgrades in 2007, and Fitch anticipates the stable asset performances and outlook to continue next year. Consumer credit default rates have been on the rise but existing deals are expected to be resilient due to conservative structures and amortisation. RMBS issuance volume has in general declined both in number and volume, but there were a few new types of transactions, like those backed by investment condominiums, a trend Fitch expects to continue in 2008. For most of non-Japan Asia, the rated cross-border transactions have demonstrated stable performance across all asset classes. Singapore and South Korea are expected to take the lead in cross-border securitisations, while domestic issuance will prevail in Taiwan and the other Asian countries. The exceptions are India and Thailand where increased delinquencies are expected to affect consumer asset performance, but not the ratings of transactions at large. Across the region, the CDO market was quiet in the second half of 2007 compared to the steady issuance seen in the first half of the year, with a number of transactions being put on hold due to adverse market conditions. Fitch expects the region's structured credit market to face challenges in 2008 due to investor sentiment and the continued fall out from the ongoing credit and liquidity crisis. Expected issuance in the region will continue to be driven by synthetic CDOs, with a clear preference towards for managed transations. Investor demand is likely to result in less complex and leveraged transactions, and the agency also expects to see continued interest in CDOs of Asian corporate assets. Fitch's "2008 Global Structured Finance Outlook" includes a review of 2007 as well as asset performance and rating volatility forecasts for the global ABS, CMBS, RMBS and CDO markets. The report also evaluates the impact of broader macroeconomic trends on the global structured finance markets. The report is available at www.fitchratings.com. Fitch also held two teleconferences recently which addressed the impact of 2007's unprecedented financial market dislocation on the US and European structured finance sectors and discussed the issues likely to dominate in the year ahead. Replays are available from the Fitch Ratings website www.fitchratings.com under events and then teleconferences. Contacts: Marjan van der Weijden, Singapore, +65 6796 7226; Rachel Hardee, Hong Kong, +852 2263 9918. Media Relations: Lisa Lim, Singapore, Tel: +65 6796 7214. Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use 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 are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site.