As a result of the various economic and market factors at play, delinquencies and losses among certain U.S. auto loan asset-backed securities (ABS) from the 2007 and first-quarter 2008 vintages have surpassed the peak loss levels recorded in 2000-2001. However, the recession has had an uneven impact across issuers of auto ABS, as some are reporting losses that remain below historical highs. Further, downgrades of transactions backed by consumer auto loans due to collateral performance have been limited to only one transaction so far this year, and there were no performance-related downgrades last year. We have, however, lowered our ratings on bond-insured deals after downgrading certain monolines. (Listen to the related podcast titled, "Despite Sharp Declines, U.S. ABS Auto Loans
