Last week, Fitch Ratings noted that the performance of Australian and New Zealand structured finance transactions remained robust in the December 2009 quarter, as reflected by a total of 28 publicly rated tranches backed by assets in Australia or New Zealand being upgraded during the quarter. In addition, 116 tranches were affirmed, while three publicly rated New Zealand tranches were downgraded. Interest rates remained low during this period, even after a further two interest rate increases to the cash rate in Australia, and with no change to the official cash rate in New Zealand. At the end of December, more than 300 Australian or New Zealand structured finance tranches had stable outlooks and more than 90 had negative outlooks. The majority of the negative outlooks were aligned with those on the lenders' mortgage insurance providers. A few negative outlooks relate to non-conforming RMBS tranches that may experience stresses as interest rates in the region rise in 2010.