Servicing

Moody's Investors Service has placed class B-3 of IndyMac ARM Trust, series 2001-H1, under review for possible downgrade.In addition, Moody's placed class B-1 under review for possible upgrade. The underlying loans consist mainly of first-lien hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage loans originated by IndyMac Bank FSB, the rating agency said. "The projected loss based on the deal's current delinquency pipeline suggests that current subordination levels are providing more than enough credit support for the class B-1 certificates, but not enough for the class B-3 certificates," Moody's said. Class B-3 is rated Baa2.

Moody's Investors Service has placed 54 classes from 13 Conseco Finance manufactured housing securitizations under review for possible downgrade.The ratings review was prompted by "the continued performance deterioration of the pools, as reflected by the high levels of cumulative losses and repossessions and erosion of credit support," the rating agency said. Green Tree Servicing LLC is servicing the loans in the underlying transactions.

Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co., San Diego, has closed a securitization of $1.012 billion of first-lien residential mortgages through its real estate investment trust subsidiary."This is the largest securitization that Accredited has ever done, containing over $1.0 billion of mortgage loans," said Accredited chairman and chief executive officer Jim Konrath. "It is also our first securitization using a senior/subordinated structure, allowing us to achieve lower funding costs by closing the transaction in the REIT." Lehman Brothers was the lead manager for the transaction. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs & Co., Credit Suisse First Boston, and Barclays Capital acted as co-managers for the deal. Accredited can be found online at http://www.accredhome.com.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services is setting deadlines for receiving essential data needed for rating U.S. residential mortgage-backed security transactions.S&P said for most mainstream deals, the data should be submitted for review by 9 a.m. EST two days before the deal's intended closing date. The rating agency is also requesting that issuers contact it for transaction-specific deadlines when issuing more esoteric RMBS deals. S&P said the deadlines would be effective for all transactions closing after Nov. 1. S&P can be found on the Web at http://www.standardandpoors.com.

Two classes of notes issued by Sunrise CDO I Ltd. and Sunrise CDO I Inc. have been placed on Rating Watch Negative by Fitch Ratings.Class B (rated BBB) represents second-priority senior secured floating-rate notes, and class C (rated B-minus) represents third-priority secured floating-rate notes, Fitch said. Both classes of notes are due Jan. 29, 2037. The transaction is a collateralized debt obligation supported by asset-backed securities, residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities, CDOs, and corporate debt from the domestic and emerging markets. "According to its July 23, 2004 trustee report, 8.67% of the portfolio represented defaulted, deferred interest [pay-in-kind], or written-down securities per Sunrise's governing documents," Fitch said. "An additional 5.14% of the portfolio was rated CCC or below. The portfolio default and rating performance has increased the risk to the class B and C notes to a point where the risk may no longer be consistent with their respective ratings."

Three classes of notes issued by Bleecker Structured Asset Funding Ltd. and Bleecker CBO Delaware Corp., and supported in part by residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities, have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings.The downgrades were as follows: class A first-priority senior secured notes, from AAA to A-minus; class B second-priority senior secured floating-rate notes, from BBB to B-minus; and class C senior subordinated fixed-rate notes, from B to C. Class C has been removed from Rating Watch Negative, while classes A and B remain there. The transaction is a collateralized bond obligation supported by asset-backed securities, RMBS, and CMBS. All the notes are due 2035. "The rating actions are a result of deterioration in the credit quality of Bleecker's collateral pool and the negative impact of its interest rate hedge," Fitch said. The rating agency can be found online at http://www.fitchratings.com.

Although the short end of the yield curve picked up in July, mortgage rates actually dropped, causing a decline in value for some mortgage servicing rights, according to MIAC.MIAC said the July drop in MSR values "slightly eroded some previous MSR gains." The New York-based company said there has been increased activity in the market for servicing rights, with several notable transactions occurring recently. MSR values on agency, 30-year portfolios declined by 4.10% between July 1 and Aug. 1, according to MIAC. (A Generic Servicing Assets table, which represents MIAC's opinion of the market value of various MSR assets, appears every business day on the Mortgage Servicing News website.)

Class M-2 of Origen Financial Inc. manufactured housing contracts, series 2001-A, has been downgraded from B-minus to CCC by Fitch Ratings.In addition, Fitch affirmed the ratings on five other classes in the deal. Southfield, Mich.-based Origen, formerly named Dynex Financial, is a privately held company that provides financing for the purchase of manufactured housing. "Loss severity on Origen's liquidated loans have been better than the industry average due to the company's dealer relationships and ability to provide financing for purchasers of repossessed units," Fitch said. "Despite this advantage, problems in the manufactured housing sector have caused loss severities to be higher than Fitch's initial expectations. This, coupled with higher default rates, has reduced the relationship between expected losses and credit enhancement."

Fitch Ratings has announced that it is maintaining its criteria on home loans governed by New Jersey's predatory-lending laws following the amendment to New Jersey's Homeownership Security Act of 2002.Fitch said it believes the elimination of "covered home loans" and "flipping" should eliminate some of the uncertainties for mortgage lenders and will benefit the New Jersey mortgage market, as more lenders may now begin, or resume, making mortgage loans in New Jersey. However, Fitch added that the amendment does not change or further clarify the assignee liability or safe-harbor issues. Thus, Fitch's policies and procedures in regard to "high-cost home loans" in New Jersey are not affected by passage of the amendment. In order to rate residential mortgage-backed securities transactions, which contain any loans originated in New Jersey after the original act's effective date of Nov. 28, 2003, Fitch will continue its policy of reviewing the results of an independent analysis of loans by an acceptable, unaffiliated third party that states that due diligence was conducted on the New Jersey loans.

Class BF-1 of Saxon Asset Securities Trust series 1999-5 has been downgraded from BBB to BB-plus by Fitch Ratings.In addition, Fitch affirmed the ratings on three classes from the deal. The downgrade was attributed to loss levels that have resulted in a decline in overcollateralization and to high delinquencies in relation to the applicable credit support.