The following is a press release from Fitch Ratings:

Fitch Ratings-Seoul/Hong Kong-03 November 2009: Fitch Ratings is set to host its annual Global Structured Finance Conference on 11 November, Wednesday. The half-day conference will bring together senior analysts from the agency's regional Structured Finance and Sovereigns ratings teams, who will share their views on the prospects and challenges that affect the world of structured finance, Korea's creditworthiness and the state of the global economy.

"The global financial crisis had Structured Finance at its epicentre. This conference aims to describe how international and local markets have navigated the crisis and whether each of them is emerging from the difficult period and what the markets might look like when they recover," says Ben McCarthy, Managing Director of Fitch's International Structured Finance team in Asia Pacific.

Paul Taylor, Group Managing Director, and Fitch's Global Head of Structured Finance will kick-off the conference, followed by a presentation from David Riley, Fitch's Group Managing Director and Head of Sovereign Ratings. Drawing from Korea's experiences with previous financial crises, Mr. Riley will discuss the country's creditworthiness. He will also touch on the implications that the economic downturn will have on Korea's public finances.

Andreas Wilgen, Senior Director of Fitch's European Risk Group and Glenn Costello, Managing Director, Global Head of SF Risk Group will share the state of Structured Finance in Europe and the United States. The presentations will include a review of the recent collateral and ratings performance for ABS, RMBS, CMBS and Structured Credit in both markets, and a broad outlook for Structured Finance in 2010.

Kyung Moo Kim from Korea Ratings will review the domestic securitisation market and issuance trends, and will also touch on recent regulatory developments, such as the new Capital Markets Act. Keum Hee Oh, Fitch's Director from the Structured Finance Group will then wrap up the discussion with a view on Korea's cross-border structured finance market and performance.

The Seoul conference is the second and final stop of Fitch's annual Global Structured Finance conference, which will begin in Tokyo on 10 November, Tuesday.

Simultaneous translations will be provided at both conferences. Admission is complimentary, but pre-registration is required. The venue details and contacts for the conferences in the different cities are as follows:

SeoulWednesday, 11 November 200913:30PM - 18:00PMKorea Federation of Banks, Convention Hall 4-1

Market participants please register your interest with Mee Ryung Song, +82 2 3278 8364/ MeeRyung.Song@fitchratings.com

Contacts: Paul Taylor, London, +44 20 7417 4228/ Paul.Taylor@fitchratings.com; David Riley, London, +44 20 7417 6338/ David.Riley@fitchratings.com; Andreas Wilgen, London, +44 20 7417 6332/ Andreas.Wilgen@fitchratings.com; Glenn Costello, New York, +1 212 908 0307/ Glenn.Costello@fitchratings.com; Keum Hee Oh, Seoul, +82 2 3278 8373/ Kyung Moo Kim, kmkim@korearatings.com

Media Relations: Karen Cho, Hong Kong, Tel: +852 2263 9935, Email: karen.cho@fitchratings.com.

Additional Information is available at 'www.fitchratings.com'.

ALL FITCH CREDIT RATINGS ARE SUBJECT TO CERTAIN LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS. PLEASE READ THESE LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS BY FOLLOWING THIS LINK: HTTP://FITCHRATINGS.COM/UNDERSTANDINGCREDITRATINGS. IN ADDITION, RATING DEFINITIONS AND THE TERMS OF USE OF SUCH RATINGS ARE AVAILABLE ON THE AGENCY'S PUBLIC WEBSITE '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.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

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