In Brief: First USA Issue Gets Aaa from Moody's

Moody's Investors Service Inc. has assigned Aaa ratings to $1.6 billion of Class A floating-rate credit-card-backed certificates issued by First USA Inc.'s banking unit.

The ratings affect $1 billion of series 1995-1 and $660 million of 1995-2 certificates.

The agency also assigned Aa ratings to $130 million of Class B certificates from the same issues.

Moody's said the rapid growth of First USA's outstanding balances, from $3.7 billion in mid-1993 to $12.5 billion, resulted in some risk to investors because of "lack of seasoning" of the accounts, as did the lack of a ceiling on interest expense.

But the agency said the credit enhancement for the certificates justified the relatively high ratings.

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