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Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP Files Class Action Suit against Fimalac, S.A.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

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SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP (“Coughlin Stoia”) (http://www.csgrr.com/cases/fimalac/) today announced that a class action has been commenced on behalf of an institutional investor in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of all U.S. citizens or residents who purchased Fimalac, S.A. (“Fimalac”) (Paris:FIM.PA) (EPA:FIM) common stock during the period between July 26, 2006 and April 20, 2008 (the “Class Period”).

If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than 60 days from today. If you wish to discuss this action or have any questions concerning this notice or your rights or interests, please contact plaintiff’s counsel, Darren Robbins of Coughlin Stoia at 800/449-4900 or 619/231-1058, or via e-mail at djr@csgrr.com. If you are a member of this class, you can view a copy of the complaint as filed or join this class action online at http://www.csgrr.com/cases/fimalac/. Any member of the putative class may move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff through counsel of their choice, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member.

The complaint charges Fimalac and certain of its officers and directors with violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Fimalac is a France-based international financial services company, providing financial ratings and enterprise risk management solutions.

Fitch Ratings, Ltd. (“Fitch”), a majority owned subsidiary of Fimalac, assigns credit ratings to structured finance transactions. The complaint alleges that, at the start of the Class Period, Fitch’s core business practice of rating residential mortgage-backed securities (“RMBS”) and collateralized debt obligation (“CDO”) transactions was extremely profitable for Fitch, which enabled it to report strong growth, which, in turn, drove Fimalac’s stock price to a Class Period high of €80.98 per share on May 22, 2007.

According to the complaint, however, defendants failed to disclose to investors during the Class Period that: (i) the information upon which Fitch based its ratings of RMBS and CDOs was misleading and in many cases fraudulent; (ii) to continue to collect fees for its ratings, Fitch was applying lax standards or no standards at all when issuing its RMBS and CDO ratings; and (iii) Fitch was failing to monitor the credit quality of RMBS and CDOs after issuing its initial ratings, as Fitch was obligated to do, and many of these securities had deteriorated badly after Fitch had issued its ratings. Fitch is now under investigation by the New York Attorney General, the Connecticut Attorney General, the Ohio Attorney General and the SEC as a result of its practices of rating billions of dollars of securities without a reasonable basis for doing so and Fimalac’s stock is trading at approximately 50% of its Class Period high.

Plaintiff seeks to recover damages on behalf of all U.S. citizens or residents who purchased Fimalac common stock during the Class Period (the “Class”). The plaintiff is represented by Coughlin Stoia, which has expertise in prosecuting investor class actions and extensive experience in actions involving financial fraud.

Coughlin Stoia, a 190-lawyer firm with offices in San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Boca Raton, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Atlanta, is active in major litigations pending in federal and state courts throughout the United States and has taken a leading role in many important actions on behalf of defrauded investors, consumers, and companies, as well as victims of human rights violations. The Coughlin Stoia Web site (http://www.csgrr.com) has more information about the firm.

Source: BUSINESS WIRE