Servicing

Class B of Residential Asset Mortgage Products Inc. series 2001-RZ2, groups 1 and 2, has been downgraded from CCC to C by Fitch Ratings.In addition, the ratings on 20 classes in five RAMP deals were affirmed and four classes were upgraded. The downgrade was attributed to depleted overcollateralization and writedowns stemming from losses that exceeded monthly excess interest.

Fitch Ratings has published a report on its standardization of originators' borrower grades, the first in a series of articles explaining its rating criteria for residential mortgage-backed securities."Whereas RMBS originators use underwriting guidelines to segregate borrowers into various risk categories, Fitch's approach involves standardizing the underwriting guidelines that help determine borrower risk by identifying five major components and correlating them into four discernible borrower grade groups," said Sarbashis Ghosh, a Fitch senior director. "These components highlight the clearest distinction of borrower risk and eliminates the noise generated from the vast multitude of differing originator-assigned grade labels." The five categories designated by Fitch are: prior mortgage pay history, pay history of nonmortgage debt, foreclosure and bankruptcy experience, chargeoffs, and debt-to-income ratios. Its borrower grades are A, A-minus, B, and C. The report is titled "Good Grades Supplement LTVs and Credit Scores." Fitch can be found online at http://www.fitchratings.com.

Retail lender Ameriquest Mortgage Co. and wholesaler Argent Mortgage Co. have announced the expansion of their affiliated servicing operation in Illinois with the grand opening of a loan servicing center in Schaumburg.The new servicing facility has hired 90 associates to date, and the expansion will ultimately create 2,100 new jobs over the next three years, the companies said. (Argent already employs more than 1,000 associates in Schaumburg.) Ameriquest and Argent are part of Ameriquest Capital Corp., a national financial services company based in Orange, Calif. The companies can be found online at http://www.ameriquest.com and http://www.argentmortgage.com.

The Seattle Federal Home Loan Bank has disclosed that it remains under "earnings pressure," and it has skipped paying a fourth-quarter dividend as part of an effort to build retained earnings."The Seattle Bank expects earnings will remain under pressure," the bank said in declaring a first-quarter dividend of 1.63% on its Class B (1) stock payable on March 31. It paid a 3.5% dividend in the third quarter before signing a supervisory agreement with its regulator. Under a new policy, dividends are based on actual earnings from the previous quarter and payouts are limited to 50% of earnings. In the third quarter, the Seattle bank reported a 53% drop in earnings, to $16.8 million, from the same period in 2003. As of Sept. 30, the bank had nearly $53.2 billion in assets and $58 million in retained earnings.

Class B of ABFC mortgage loan asset-backed certificates, series 2001-AQ1, has been placed on review for possible downgrade by Moody's Investors Service.Moody's also placed on review for possible upgrade five certificates from Ameriquest Mortgage Co. asset-backed securitization deals. The transactions consist of fixed-rate and adjustable-rate first-lien subprime mortgage loans. The negative rating action was based on the fact that credit enhancement levels are low given projected losses on the underlying pools, Moody's said. "The transaction has taken losses, and pipeline loss could cause eventual erosion of the overcollateralization," the rating agency said. Moody's can be found online at http://www.moodys.com.

FFW Corp., the parent company of First Federal Savings Bank, Wabash, Ind., has recorded a noncash impairment charge of approximately $1.8 million ($1.38 per share) for the second fiscal quarter of 2005 related to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac preferred stock, resulting in a net loss of $1.2 million for the quarter.The company said the charge had no effect on its capital because the unrealized losses were already recorded as a mark-to-market adjustment in other comprehensive income. FFW said the decision to take the charge was based on several factors, including "recent public disclosures" at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the "duration and level of market values below book cost" on the stocks, and Fannie's December multibillion-dollar issuance of preferred stock "with a substantially different structure and higher yields than previous offerings." First Federal Savings can be found online at http://www.ffsbwabash.com.

The common stock of American Business Financial Services Inc., Philadelphia, will be delisted from the NASDAQ Stock Market on Feb. 2, ABFS has reported.ABFS, which originates, sells, and services home mortgage loans via subsidiaries, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Jan. 21. The company said it received the delisting notice on Jan. 24, and that the trading symbol of its stock will be ABFIQ until the delisting.

Class B-4F of Ocwen Residential MBS Corp. mortgage pass-through certificates, series 1999-R1 group F, has been downgraded from CCC to CC by Fitch Ratings.The rating agency also affirmed and removed from Rating Watch Negative the rating on class B-4A of Ocwen Residential MBS Corp. mortgage pass-through certificates, series 1999-r1 group a. In addition, Fitch upgraded four classes from two Ocwen deals and affirmed the ratings on 11 classes in three Ocwen transactions. The downgrade was attributed to collateral losses that resulted in a decline in credit enhancement. Fitch can be found online at http://www.fitchratings.com.

The Prestwick Group, Alexandria, Va., is brokering the sale of servicing rights on a $204 million portfolio of Ginnie Mae loans.The portfolio has a weighted average note rate of 5.367% and a weighted average service fee of 0.4247%. The average loan balance is $112,694, and the weighted average seasoning is 15 months. The delinquency ratio, including foreclosures, is 9.85%. Bids are due Feb. 8.

Fitch Ratings has affirmed and removed from Rating Watch Negative its A-minus financial strength ratings for the title insurance underwriting subsidiaries of Fidelity National Financial Inc. and its BBB-minus long-term issuer rating of FNF.In addition, Fitch assigned a BB-minus rating to the senior secured credit facility entered into by FNF's subsidiary Fidelity National Information Services. Fitch had downgraded FNF and placed its ratings on Rating Watch Negative after the announcement of a recapitalization plan for the subsidiary that would leverage the parent company's consolidated balance sheet to a debt-to-capital ratio of approximately 50%, Fitch said. The rating agency said it removed those ratings from the watchlist after analyzing the title operations separately from information services and determining that FNF-only leverage and coverage would be "supportive of the current ratings."