Fitch Places 3 First Marblehead Student Loan ABS Deals on Watch Negative

Fitch Ratings has placed on Rating Watch Negative 12 classes from the National Collegiate Student Loan Trust (NCSLT) 2003-1, 2004-1, and 2004-2 asset-backed securities (ABS) transactions issued by the First Marblehead Corporation (FMD). The ratings actions are detailed at the end of this press release.

The Rating Watch Negative reflects default rates that continue to exceed Fitch's initial expectations and Fitch's ongoing concerns regarding the level of recoveries on defaulted loans in an environment following the bankruptcy of The Education Resources Institute (TERI). TERI is the guarantor of the loans in the NCSLT transactions. As a result of the higher than expected defaults, amounts held in the TERI funds pledged the trusts to cover losses have been depleted.

The transactions were placed 'Under Analysis' due to increasing defaults and declining parity levels.

Fitch places the following classes on Rating Watch Negative:

National Collegiate Student Loan Trust 2003-1

--Class A-4 'AAA'; Rating Watch Negative;

--Class A-5 'AAA'; Rating Watch Negative;

--Class A-6 'AAA'; Rating Watch Negative;

--Class A-7 'AAA'; Rating Watch Negative;

--Class A-IO 'AAA'; Rating Watch Negative;

--Class B-1 'A+'; Rating Watch Negative;

--Class B-2 'A+'; Rating Watch Negative.

National Collegiate Student Loan Trust 2004-1

--Class A-2 'AAA'; Rating Watch Negative;

--Class A-3 'AAA'; Rating Watch Negative;

--Class A-4 'AAA'; Rating Watch Negative;

--Class A-IO-1 'AAA'; Rating Watch Negative;

--Class A-IO-2 'AAA'; Rating Watch Negative;

--Class B-1 'A'; Rating Watch Negative;

--Class B-2 'A'; Rating Watch Negative.

National Collegiate Student Loan Trust 2004-2

--Class A-2 'AAA'; Rating Watch Negative;

--Class A-3 'AAA'; Rating Watch Negative;

--Class A-4 'AAA'; Rating Watch Negative;

--Class A-5 'AAA'; Rating Watch Negative;

--Class A-IO 'AAA'; Rating Watch Negative;

--Class B 'AA+'; Rating Watch Negative;

--Class C 'A+'; Rating Watch Negative.

The following applicable criteria reports are available on Fitch's web site at 'www.fitchratings.com': 'Global Structured Finance Rating Criteria', dated Sept. 30, 2009 and 'U.S. Private Student Loan ABS Criteria', dated Aug. 24, 2009.

Additional information is available at 'www.fitchratings.com'.

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