Servicing

Moody's has also refined its approach to analyzing securitizations of payment-option adjustable-rate mortgages.The methodology revisions, stemming from the weaker housing and mortgage markets, also refine the rating agency's credit risk analysis of different option ARM products, Moody's said. "The updated option ARM methodology is expected to increase our loss estimates by up to 20% and Aaa loss estimates by 10% to 40%," Moody's said. The agency said the updated methodology refines its analysis of a loan's negative amortization potential by varying loss estimates based on the difference between a loan's fully indexed interest payment and its minimum payment. In addition, Moody's is enhancing its analysis of how a borrower was qualified by varying loss projections based on the difference between a loan's fully indexed payment and the payment at which the borrower was qualified. Moody's has also increased loss projections for option ARMs in cases where a borrower's income was not verified.

Moody's Investors Service has announced refinements to its methodology for rating residential mortgage securitizations backed by alternative-A mortgage loans.The rating agency said the revisions address the poor performance of subprime-like loans, low- and no-equity loans, and low- and no-documentation loans present in certain alt-A transactions securitized in 2006. Moody's said its increases in loss estimates are projected to range from 10% for stronger alt-A pools to more than 100% for weaker ones. Higher loss estimates for the weakest 5% to 10% of alt-A loans are projected to account for 25% to 50% of the increase in loss estimates. "Actual performance of weaker alt-A loans has in many cases been comparable to stronger subprime performance, signaling that underwriting standards were likely closer to subprime guidelines," said Moody's senior credit officer Marjan Riggi. "Absent strong compensating factors, we will model these loans as subprime loans." Moody's can be found online at http://www.moodys.com.

Fannie Mae plans to provide third-party origination statistics for "substantially all" its mortgage-backed securities beginning with September issuances.For each new-issue MBS, Fannie plans to provide the following: the unpaid principal balance percentage of the underlying collateral originated by a third party and a table with the number of loans, percentage of UPB, and aggregated UPB originated by retail, broker, and correspondent lenders. "By year-end, the company will expand the at-issuance TPO statistics to include all single-family MBS and will provide the same information for ongoing disclosure," the government-sponsored enterprise said. Fannie Mae can be found online at http://www.fanniemae.com.

Oxford Funding Corp., Houston, has announced an agreement with an unnamed major U.S. mortgage lender under which Oxford will acquire a $3 million portfolio of underperforming loans at a substantial discount to market.Ronald Redd, Oxford's chief executive officer, said Oxford hopes to make additional portfolio acquisitions from the lender over the next several months. Citing the subprime crisis, Oxford said it plans to acquire performing, underperforming, and nonperforming loans that it will "restructure and rehabilitate." The company can be found on the Web at http://www.oxfordfunding.com.

Class M10 of Structured Asset Securities Corp. residential mortgage-backed certificates, series 2006-7, has been placed on Rating Watch Negative by Fitch Ratings.In addition, Fitch affirmed the ratings on 10 classes from the SASCO transaction. The negative rating action was attributed to "signs of increasing credit risk."

The commercial mortgage-backed securities primary servicer rating of Washington Mutual Bank has been lowered from CPS2-minus to CPS3-plus by Fitch Ratings.WaMu Bank's master servicer rating of CMS3 and its special servicer rating of CSS3 were affirmed, the rating agency said. The downgrade was attributed to the company's high employee and management turnover rates. Among other factors cited were higher-than-average real estate tax penalties in 2006 and the "relatively limited" CMBS servicing experience of the bank's senior management team. Fitch rates commercial mortgage servicers on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the highest rating. Fitch can be found on the Web at http://www.fitchratings.com.

CU Members Mortgage, Fort Worth, Texas, has announced an exclusive relationship with the Association of Vermont Credit Unions to provide mortgage origination and servicing to the AVCU's 30 member credit unions."Our goal is to provide the support credit unions need to increase their market share of home loans, and CU Members Mortgage has the capabilities and experience to work with credit unions to increase homeownership among their members while creating new income for the credit unions' financial viability," said Bryan Kent, vice president/LSC executive at the AVCU. The mortgage company can be found on the Web at http://www.cumembers.com, and the association can be found at http://www.vermontcreditunions.com.

IndyMac Bancorp Inc., Pasadena, Calif., has reported net earnings of $44.6 million ($0.60 per share) for the second quarter, down 57% from $104.7 million ($1.49 per share) a year earlier.IndyMac's mortgage loan production totaled $22.5 billion in the second quarter, down 12% from that of the first quarter, the company said. Michael Perry, the company's chairman and chief executive officer, said IndyMac's 8.6% return on equity was below its 10% forecast because the forecast had included a gain from the sale/leaseback of a commercial property housing one of its mortgage loan centers. The sale resulted in a $60 million pretax gain, but $24 million will be recorded in the third quarter and the remainder will be deferred, he said. "While our ROE for the quarter is below our historical performance, it must be considered solid given current conditions in the mortgage and housing markets," Mr. Perry said. "Once again, the balance provided by our hybrid thrift/mortgage banking model protected us in this environment. Our mortgage production business, while down slightly from last quarter, had earnings of $38 million and a solid 21% ROE, despite a high level of costs, which had been anticipated." IndyMac can be found online at http://www.indymacbank.com.

The two mortgage insurance firms that control C-BASS have written down the value of their investment in the New York-based specialty servicer by more than $1 billion combined, according to company statements.Meanwhile, in trading on Tuesday the share price of the two MIs -- MGIC Investment Corp., Milwaukee, and Radian Group, Philadelphia -- had fallen by 9% and 10%, respectively. MGIC and Radian, which are merging, control C-BASS, which in turn owns Houston-based Litton Loan Servicing, a $48 billion servicer of subprime loans. MGIC had valued its share of C-BASS at $516 million, Radian, $518 million. In separate statements, MGIC said its investment in C-BASS "could be" fully impaired, while Radian said its investment is "materially impaired." On Monday night the two MIs said C-BASS has been the subject of "unprecedented" margin calls. The mortgage insurers can be found online at http://www.mgic.com and http://www.radianmi.com.

New York-based C-BASS LLC, which controls the nation's 10th-largest subprime servicer, has been hit by what its parent companies are calling an "unprecedented amount" of margin calls.According to the Quarterly Data Report, the C-BASS-owned Litton Loan Servicing, Houston, owns the right to service $48 billion in mostly subprime loans. C-BASS is controlled by two publicly traded mortgage insurance firms: MGIC Investment Corp. and Radian Group Inc., which are in the process of merging. (See related story below.) In a statement issued July 31, the two MIs said C-BASS "remains confident in the overall credit quality of its portfolio and the performance of its highly rated servicing subsidiary Litton Loan Servicing." Citing a "tumultuous time" in the subprime market, the two MIs said C-BASS was asked to meet $290 million worth of margin calls during the first half. (At the beginning of the year it had $302 million in liquidity.) C-BASS -- Credit-Based Asset Servicing and Securitization LLC -- can be found online at http://www.c-bass.com.