Fitch Ratings has released a special report 'U.S. Life Insurers: Large Commercial Mortgage Exposure Under Control' which summarizes Fitch's views on the commercial mortgage market, including an 2008 outlook and a comparison to the residential mortgage market, examines the impact on U.S. life insurers, and provides detailed information on the industry's investment exposure to directly placed mortgage loans and CMBS. This report states that Fitch does not expect weakness in the commercial mortgage market to negatively impact ratings for U.S. life insurers in 2008. Nevertheless, Fitch expects an increase in realized losses associated with commercial mortgage-related investments due to increased loan default rates and spread widening will negatively impact industry earnings in 2008.

The special report, 'U.S. Life Insurers: Large Commercial Mortgage Exposure Under Control' is now available at www.fitchratings.com under the following headers: Financial Institutions then Insurance then Special Reports. (Business Wire, April 15, 2008)