Lehman rulings may impact global structured finance

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The rating impact of recent Lehman Brothers court rulings in the English Court of Appeal and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court on existing structured finance ratings could be "wide-ranging" globally, Fitch Ratings said on Friday.

A New York bankruptcy court said last year that Lehman Brothers can pursue a case to restore its first claim on assets in a collateralized debt obligation called Dante, in spite of an earlier English court ruling that Lehman forfeited its claim by filing for bankruptcy.

Fitch Ratings, repeating concerns made in August, said on Friday that it is identifying all transactions potentially affected by these events and will provide more information in coming weeks after court hearings scheduled in February.

Fitch said European structured finance transactions may be most impacted "given the prevalence of derivatives to hedge interest rate and foreign exchange risk," Fitch said.

Few U.S. CMBS transactions will have significant exposure to risks raised by the ruling, Fitch said, as these structures did not widely contain derivative contracts that are likely to add risk.

(Reporting by Walden Siew; Editing by Kenneth Barry)