Structured Finance Hedge Criteria Compared

Abstract

Beginning in May 2006, Moody's Investors Service, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, and Fitch Ratings published criteria for hedge transactions relating to highly rated structured finance transactions. The rating agencies took varied approaches in these publications, yet their primary goal was the same: to establish uniform criteria for derivatives documents and hedge counterparties in structured finance transactions. In short, each of the rating agency criteria aims to make the risk of loss in rated structured finance transactions remote from hedge counterparty risk by specifying remedial actions that a hedge counterparty must take within a specified period of time following certain downgrades of its credit ratings.