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Despite U.S. healthcare defaults at a 16-year low, profits of some issuers are challenged.

"Payor consolidation and increasing scrutiny of both high cost drugs and care delivery settings are hurting healthcare profits," said Megan Neuburger, Managing Director. "Acute care hospitals and pharmaceutical manufacturers are most at risk."

Default rates

The Supreme Court ruling regarding the funding of public sector collective bargaining activities is not likely to have a meaningful effect on state and local government finances.

The ruling for the plaintiff in Janus vs. AFSCME Council 31 eliminates the requirement that non-union public sector employees pay "agency fees" to contribute to the cost

Fitch Ratings expects relatively stable commercial real estate fundamentals to drive strong investment results for U.S. life insurers over the next 12 to 24 months. Loss experience on life insurers' mortgage loan investments has been very favorable over the past year as evidenced by low credit impairments and a low percentage of troubled mortgages

The pace of asset purchases by the Bank of Japan (BOJ) has continued to slow sharply in 2018 to an annual rate of around JPY45 trillion (USD410 billion) despite the official commitment to annual purchases of around JPY80 trillion. 

While BOJ monetary policy remains extremely accommodative and the scale of asset purchases is still large, this

Key macro parameter deviations from baseline are generally tougher in the adverse scenario of the European Banking Authority's (EBA) 2018 stress test of major EU banks than was the case in 2016. The adverse scenario applies an 8.3% deviation of EU GDP from the baseline level in 2020 and fears around a Nordic asset bubble and Brexit lead to deep

U.S. CLOs are not shying away from new loans being issued by the energy sector despite the continued risk of defaults in their legacy holdings, largely to loans issued when oil prices were higher, Fitch Ratings says. CLO exposure to the energy sector could increase on strong energy issuance for the year.

Nearly all of the CLOs monitored by Fitch -

Canadian bank bail-in rules, which come into effect on Sept. 23, finalize a credible resolution framework for Canadian domestic systemically important banks (DSIBs). With the bail-in, total loss absorbing capacity (TLAC) and nonviability contingent capital (NVCC) requirements in place, Canada has completed the main tenets of an orderly resolution

The final five months of 2018 could see only $3 billion of defaults, the lowest amount since 2013.

"Although YTD default volume could potentially reach nearly $25 billion by the end of this month, compared to $12 billion through the first half of 2017, the overwhelming majority of the 2018 forecast defaults have already occurred," said Eric

China's securitisation issuance slowed down in 1Q18 as a whole, while retail loan and consumer assets remain active in the Credit Asset Securitisation Scheme which includes RMBS, auto-ABS and consumer loan/credit card ABS. Fitch Ratings expects such assets will continue to grow as a proportion of underlying assets in 2018.

RMBS has enjoyed a

Underwriting losses in the U.S. P&C personal lines segment moved higher for the fourth straight year in 2017, though this time another segment drove the increase.

Personal lines are the largest major segment in the P&C industry representing 55% of industry net written premiums. The industry statutory personal lines combined ratio rose to 103.8% in