Fitch has affirmed a total of 16 publicly-rated tranches (including international and national ratings) backed by assets in non-Japan Asia were affirmed during Q309.

Alex Choi, associate director in Fitch's Asia Pacific structured finance team, says: "The performance of the outstanding transactions in Q309 has been steady or has improved. Most rated tranches continue to perform well within Fitch's base-case assumptions and we expect this trend to continue in the near future, as evidenced by the stable outlooks assigned to most of the rated tranches."

Three ABS tranches backed by Korean credit card receivables were affirmed, on account of the improvement of the delinquency and default ratios and net yield, following the deterioration of these ratios in H109. The improvement of the credit card receivables performance is the result of an improvement in Korea's economy, Fitch says. The current available credit enhancement (CE) levels of the three tranches are considered sufficient to support the respective ratings.

One tranche from Korea Ace Mortgage, a Korean RMBS transaction, was affirmed based on steady asset performance, low delinquency ratio and CE build-up as the notes are being paid off. None of the underlying mortgage loans have defaulted since transaction closing. The notes from Value Master 2008-1 Limited were also affirmed, with the outlook being revised to stable from negative in line with a similar revision for Korea Development Bank, to which the ratings are linked.

Two CMBS transactions in Singapore, Emerald Assets Limited Series P1-AAA-002 and Star Topaz, were affirmed with stable outlooks. The Emerald Asset notes were affirmed following the release of security over 14 of the original 50 industrial properties in the portfolio and the redemption of the Series P1-AAA-001 notes. The agency notes that the current rating is supported by Fitch's stressed debt service coverage ratio (DSCR), which is commensurate with a triple-A stress scenario.

Star Topaz was affirmed based on the actual portfolio cashflow being above the stabilised assumption and the strong average DSCR during the past 12 months.

Meanwhile, seven tranches from ABS backed by three Thai credit card receivables transactions were affirmed, reflecting the transactions' ability to maintain CE levels commensurate with the respective ratings. Yield and excess spread, as well as the default rate of all three deals, have performed within Fitch's base-case assumptions since closing.

The monthly payment rate (MPR) for Eternal Credit Card and Eternal 3 has been below the agency's base-case assumptions. However, Fitch believes that the expected CE levels and the satisfactory performance of yield and excess spread, as well as default rate of these two transactions should be sufficient to offset the weak MPR performance.

The outlooks for individual tranches remain unchanged over the quarter, with most being stable, Fitch concludes.