Receiu rating agency reports attack long-held assumption ot participants in the structured finance market: that asset-backed securities (ABS), connnercial mortgage-backed securities(CMBS), .md residential mortgage- backed securities (RMBS) have lower historical default rates than equivalently rated corporate debt. The implication ot this is important, not only for investors in these assets, but also tor investors in structured finance collateralized debt obligations(SF CDOs) backed by these assets.