Educational - Fitch Affirms 2 Classes from Educational Services Foundation 1996 Indenture Trust

Fitch Ratings affirms the Educational Services Foundation 1996 Master Trust. The trust has been producing positive excess spread, and the parity for the senior notes is at 114.83% as of Sept. 30, 2009. A complete list of rating actions follows at the end of this press release.

Fitch's Global Structured Finance Rating Criteria was used to review the ratings and the affirmation is based on the performance of the trust in-line with the expectation. The existence of auction rate securities has not had a significant impact on the trust performance.

The collateral supporting the Trust consists entirely of federally guaranteed student loans originated under the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP). FFELP loans are guaranteed at least 97% of principal and accrued interest, depending on the loan origination date. The loans are serviced by Chase Student Loan Servicing and AES, neither of which carry a Fitch rating.

Fitch affirms and assigns Outlooks to the following senior classes of Educational Services Foundation 1996 Indenture Trust:

--Class 1996 bonds at 'AAA/LS1'; Outlook Stable;

--Class 2000 bonds at 'AAA/LS1'; Outlook Stable.

The following applicable criteria report is available on Fitch's web site at 'www.fitchratings.com': 'Global Structured Finance Rating Criteria', dated Sept. 30, 2009.

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

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