Fitch Affirms 2 RMBS Classes From 2 First Union HELs

Business Wire, Jan 30, 2008

NEW YORK -- Fitch Ratings has affirmed the following First Union Home Equity Loan (FUHEL) mortgage pass-through certificates:

Series 1997-1

--Class B at 'B'.

Series 1997-3

--Class B at 'CCC/DR2'.

The collateral on the aforementioned transactions consists of mixed-term, fixed-rate and balloon mortgages extended to subprime borrowers. The servicer for all transactions is First Union National Bank of North Carolina, which is currently not rated by Fitch.

The affirmations are due to satisfactory relationships of credit enhancement (CE) to future expected losses, and affect approximately $671,000 in outstanding certificates. The pool factors (current collateral balance as a percentage of initial collateral balance) and seasoning for 1997-1 and 1997-3 are 3% and 4%, and 127 months and 120 months, respectively. The cumulative losses are 4.65% and 5.61%, respectively.

Further information regarding current delinquency, loss and credit enhancement statistics is available on the Fitch Ratings web site at www.fitchratings.com.

Fitch's Distressed Recovery (DR) ratings are designed to estimate recoveries on a forward-looking basis while taking into account the time value of money.

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.