...Ratings Performance Improved: Over 99% of Asia-Pacific structured finance (SF) tranches maintained their ratings, were upgraded or paid in full (PIF) in 2013, compared with the 95% reported in 2012. The ratio of ratings maintained, upgraded and PIF was higher than the average results over the 1998-2013 period, for all rating categories. Upgrades Outnumbered Downgrades: Asia-Pacific SF upgrades outnumbered downgrades, by a ratio of 4.7:1. This was the first time since the onset of the 2008 global financial crisis that there were more positive rating actions than negative. The number of upgrades (14) and downgrades (three) is low, as over 55% of the portfolio was rated `AAAsf' at the beginning of 2013, and high rating stability is therefore expected. Japan CMBS Workouts Finalised: The limited number of downgrades reflects the fact that workouts in Japanese CMBS, the major contributor to downgrades in previous years, are in their final stages. Two of the three Asia-Pacific downgrades were...
