Servicing

Luminent Mortgage Capital Inc., San Francisco, has reported the establishment of a $1 billion single-seller commercial paper facility, Luminent Star Funding I, to fund its mortgage-backed securities portfolio.Gail P. Seneca, Luminent's chairman and chief executive officer, said the facility will enable the company to reduce its reliance on repurchase agreement financing and increase its access to "economical and reliable funding." Luminent, a real estate investment trust, can be found online at http://www.luminentcapital.com.

ECC Capital Corp., a real estate investment trust based in Irvine, Calif., has announced the completion of a $1.06 billion securitization of subprime mortgage loans.ECC Capital said it has sold the notes from BMAT Mortgage Asset NIM Trust, series 2006-1, representing the completion of the Bravo Mortgage Asset Trust 2006-1 securitization. The Bravo deal was a private placement with an initial closing on May 2 and prefundings on June 7 and June 30. Bear, Stearns & Co. was the sole offering agent for the notes and the certificates. ECC Capital, a mortgage finance REIT, can be found online at http://www.encorecredit.com.

Mortgage companies added 2,200 full-time employees to their payrolls in June, which could be an indication that mortgage originations are holding up better than expected.The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that employment in the mortgage banker/broker sector rose from 500,900 in May to 503,100 in June. (The May employment number was revised upward from 500,000.) Overall, mortgage industry employment is up 3% since the housing market peaked in June 2005. Four quarters later, existing-home sales are off 8.9% and new-home sales are off 11.1%. But refinancings have remained surprisingly strong and represented 42% of originations in the second quarter, according to Freddie Mac. Preliminary survey figures compiled by National Mortgage News show that second-quarter residential fundings are down about 2% from those of the second quarter of last year. The 2% decline is based on data from 30 companies, and the actual results could change dramatically as more lenders file survey figures. See the Aug. 7 issue of NMN for the full story.

Two classes of Structured Asset Security Corp. Amortizing Residential Collateral Trust series 2002-BC9 have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings.Class M4 was downgraded from BBB to BB-plus, and class B was downgraded from BBB-minus to BB. Fitch also affirmed the ratings on six classes in two SASCO ARC transactions. The downgrades were attributed to a deterioration in the relationship between credit enhancement and expected losses due to higher-than-expected delinquencies and losses and to overcollateralization that is below the target amount. Approximately 34% of the pool is more than 60 days delinquent, and in seven of the past 12 months the excess spread has not been sufficient to cover the monthly losses, the rating agency reported. The pool consists of fixed- and adjustable-rate mortgage loans secured by first and second liens.

The board of directors of U.S. Bancorp, Minneapolis, the parent company of U.S. Bank Home Mortgage, has authorized a program to repurchase up to 150 million shares of its outstanding common stock.The authorization replaces the company's existing share repurchase program. U.S. Bancorp's common stock may be repurchased through December 2008 in the open market or in privately negotiated transactions, and the reacquired shares will be held as treasury shares and may be reissued for various corporate purposes, the company said. U.S. Bank can be found online at http://www.usbank.com.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has upgraded Wells Fargo Bank NA to AA-plus, making it S&P's highest-rated bank in the United States, according to Wells Fargo & Co., San Francisco.Wells Fargo, whose recent agreement to buy $140 billion in receivables from Washington Mutual will make it the No. 1-ranked residential mortgage servicer in the United States, said S&P also raised the long-term credit ratings of Wells Fargo & Co.'s senior debt to AA, making it S&P's highest-rated U.S. bank holding company. Wells Fargo noted that in 2003, Moody's Investors Service made Wells Fargo Bank its only Aaa-rated bank in the United States. Wells Fargo can be found online at http://www.wellsfargo.com.

Three certificates from two GSMPS Mortgage Loan Trust deals have been placed under review for possible downgrade by Moody's Investors Service.The affected securities are class B5 of series 2002-1 and classes B-2 and B-3 of series 2005-LT1. In addition, Moody's placed three certificates from one GSMPS deal under review for possible upgrade. Moody's attributed the negative rating actions to credit enhancement levels that are low given the projected losses on the underlying pools. The transactions consist of securitizations of re-performing and nonperforming loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration or guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs, virtually all of which were repurchased from Ginnie Mae pools, Moody's said.

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded one class from a transaction issued by Credit Suisse First Boston Mortgage in 2002 and placed one class from another deal under review for possible downgrade.Class B-F of Credit Suisse First Boston Mortgage Acceptance Corp. series 2002-HE4 was downgraded from B1 to Caa3, and class B-1 of Credit Suisse First Boston Mortgage Securities Corp. series 2002-HE11 was placed under review for possible downgrade. The actions were attributed to credit enhancement levels, including excess spread, that were deemed low in view of projected losses. The pools are backed by subprime, first-lien, fixed- and adjustable-rate loans. The rating agency can be found online at http://www.moodys.com.

Analysts included in Zacks.com's All Star Analyst Survey have recommended the stock of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.The All Star Analyst portfolio represents all stocks with a Strong Buy rating from at least four analysts with a 5-Star All Star ranking, Zacks said. Starwood "recently posted earnings per share from continuing operations of 74 cents for the second quarter, which marked a more than 25% positive surprise over the consensus," Zacks reported. Zacks can be found online at http://www.zacks.com.

Irwin Financial Corp., Columbus, Ind., has reported net income of $2.9 million ($0.09 per share) for the second quarter, but the results include an after-tax loss of $5.2 million from Irwin Mortgage, which is for sale and now listed under discontinued operations.A year earlier, Irwin reported a net loss of $3.4 million ($0.12 per share). The company said its core mortgage production and servicing operations were profitable in the second quarter, but that the after-tax loss reflected "certain costs related to the planned sale of the segment" and hedge losses related to mortgage servicing rights. "While our origination volumes and overall profitability in our home equity segment are still below our desired levels, we believe we are on the path to improved profitability," said Irwin chairman Will Miller. ".... We are making clear progress on the sale of our conventional first-mortgage segment, and I hope we will be in a position to announce definitive plans shortly." The company can be found online at http://www.irwinfinancial.com.