Fitch Rates JP Morgan’s $582m CMBS Trust

Fitch Ratings on Wednesday assessed a new commercial mortgage-backed security (CMBS) trust issued by JP Morgan Chase (JPM). The issuance comes during a lull in the CMBS market that mirrors the one previously seen for many months in the residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) market. The JP Morgan trust seems to buck the overarching trend of silence on the CMBS front during a developing commercial mortgage market crisis. The JPMorgan CMBS Trust 2009-RR1 re-securitizes the ownership interest in 15 commercial mortgage-backed certificates totaling more than $582m. Three of the eight classes received triple-A ratings, while the other five received single-A ratings. Fitch says that the principal and interest payments from the underlying commercial mortgage-backed certificates apply to the triple-A rated classes first, and then to the single-A rated certificates. Losses apply in reverse order. Credit enhancement for the top and triple-A classes is approximately 50%, according to Fitch, and is structurally supported by the underlying transactions and the single-A rated certificates. Fitch rated the underlying bonds collateralizing the issuance as triple-A. The rating of the JP Morgan trust comes amidst a lull in the CMBS market, and after a pickup of activity in residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) in the last few months, with DBRS rating a new RMBS-related issuance out of Citigroup (C) just this week. “I wouldn’t say the securitization market has recovered, as we still have a rough road ahead,” said Quincy Tang, senior vice president of US strucutred finance for DBRS. “We’re closer now than we were three months ago,” Tang added. “If you’d asked me three months ago, I would not have thought there would be any new issuances this year.” Write to Jon Prior.