Servicing

The B-4 classes of ABN Amro (AMAC) mortgage pass-through certificates series 1999-1 and series 1999-5 have been placed on Rating Watch Negative by Fitch Ratings.The rating agency also upgraded eight classes in the two transactions and affirmed the ratings on two others. The Rating Watch placements were due to loss levels and high delinquencies relative to applicable credit support, Fitch said. The rating agency can be found online at http://www.fitchratings.com.

First American Real Estate Solutions, a joint venture 80% owned by the First American Corp., has reached an agreement to buy Transamerica's real estate tax service and flood hazard certification businesses for an undisclosed price.First American said terms of the transaction will be disclosed upon execution of the definitive agreements. The joint venture partner in FARES is Experian Information Solutions. The transaction will be funded from FARES's existing cash and proportional cash contributions from First American and Experian, First American said. Transamerica Finance Corp. is an indirect subsidiary of Aegon, one of the world's largest insurance firms. It is based in the Netherlands. FARES can be found online at http://www.firstamres.com.

The rating on class HI B-2 of Home Improvement & Home Equity Loan Trust 1997-C, a Conseco Finance Corp.-related transaction, has been lowered from CCC-minus to D by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services.S&P said Conseco Finance did not make any payments under a limited guarantee on the July 15 and Aug. 15 distribution dates, causing interest shortfalls on class HI B-2 that resulted in default. "These interest shortfalls were not made known until corrected monthly distribution reports were sent on Friday, Aug. 29, 2003," S&P said, citing an error in the reporting model used by the servicer, Green Tree Servicing LLC, as the cause of the delay. S&P can be found online at http://www.standardandpoors.com.

Rogers Townsend & Thomas PC, Columbia, S.C., has announced it that it is the only law firm in South Carolina to be named a designated counsel by both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.The firm said it has been selected to represent both government-sponsored enterprises in foreclosure and related proceedings in the state. The selection was made from numerous law firms vying to be one of two designated counsels in the state for each GSE, Rogers Townsend said. The law firm, which specializes in default services, real estate, and litigation, can be found on the Web at http://www.rtt-law.com.

Francis Creighton, a former legislative director for Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., has been named director of government affairs at the Mortgage Bankers Association of America.The MBA said Mr. Creighton will be primarily responsible for lobbying the House of Representatives on key industry issues. Before his stint with Rep. Israel's office, Mr. Creighton was senior counsel for public affairs and manager of new business development at the GCI Group, New York. He has also worked at the U.S. Department of Labor and in the offices of former Rep. Sam Gejdenson, D-Conn., and the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y. The MBA can be found online at http://www.mbaa.org.

The PMI Group Inc., Walnut Creek, Calif., has been given a rank of 4(Sell) by Zacks.com, the online unit of Zacks Investment Research Inc., Chicago.Stocks with this ranking should be sold or avoided for the next one to three months, Zacks said. In its comments about the mortgage insurer, Zacks noted that earnings estimates for this year and next are down 62 cents and 34 cents, respectively, from where they were at the end of May. In its results for the second quarter, PMI did not take any impairment related to the beleaguered Fairbanks Capital Corp., but the company did not rule out any future action. (PMI owns 57% of Fairbanks, a subprime mortgage servicer based in Salt Lake City that is under federal investigation for its servicing practices.) On the other hand, PMI is the largest stakeholder in the investor group buying Financial Guaranty Insurance Corp. from GE Capital. "As conditions improve, so too should PMI Group's results and earnings estimates," Zacks said. "For right now, though, it might be best to sit tight on a position in PMI Group until its earnings estimates gain more upside mobility." Zacks can be found online at http://www.zacks.com.

Fitch Ratings has announced the addition of the prime market sector to its Web-based RMBS Market Sector Performance Indices.The indices present mortgage delinquency statistics for the prime and subprime sectors by period of security issuance, and facilitates the comparison of performance over time, the rating agency said. The residential mortgage-backed securities indices include 60-day and 90-day delinquencies, foreclosures, real estate owned, a combined 60-day-plus status, and a short commentary on each sector's performance. The statistics and commentary are updated monthly. Fitch said the prime and subprime indices are based on loan-level data using actual payment dates. This system allows Fitch to generate indices based on the market approach, an advantage over indices aggregated from the deal level, where the method is dependent upon the servicer, the rating agency said.

Freddie Mac -- which has been in turmoil since June when it ousted its three top officers -- acquired $80 billion in mortgages during July, a new record for the company.However, its purchase commitments, a barometer of future activity, fell to $44 billion in July, a 20% decline from the previous month and Freddie Mac's lowest reading since April. (Freddie also said its average duration gap for July widened to positive-one month from zero in June.) Some seller-servicers are hoping that the company might give "guarantee fee" discounts to lure mortgage bankers away from Fannie Mae. One concern of Freddie Mac's board is that it has lost market share to Fannie. When Freddie fired the three officers in June, some seller-servicers took the opportunity to slam the company for its past business practices, in particular a g-fee floor of 16 basis points that it established in late 2001. On Friday, under pressure from its regulator, Freddie Mac removed Greg Parseghian as its chief executive, though he will remain in an interim capacity. Mr. Parseghian was promoted to CEO in early June when the other three left the company. An internal report by Freddie Mac said Mr. Parseghian was involved in some of the accounting maneuvers designed to smooth out the company's earnings. Freddie Mac can be found online at http://www.freddiemac.com.

Class BF-1 of Saxon Asset Securities Trust, series 1999-5, has been placed on Rating Watch Negative by Fitch Ratings.In addition, Fitch upgraded two classes of residential mortgage-backed securities in two other Saxon deals and affirmed the ratings on 19 classes in five deals. The rating agency attributed the Rating Watch placement to loss levels and high delinquencies in relation to applicable credit support.

Class BF of IndyMac ABS Inc. series SPMD 2000-A, Group 1, has been downgraded from BBB to BB and removed from Rating Watch Negative by Fitch Ratings.In addition, the ratings on three classes in the same home equity deal were affirmed. Fitch attributed the downgrade to "adverse collateral performance and the deterioration of asset quality outside of Fitch's original expectations." The deal originally contained 9.35% of manufactured housing collateral, but the percentage had increased to 18.25% as of July 2003, the rating agency said. "To date, MH loans have exhibited very high historical loss severities, causing Fitch to have concerns over the available enhancement in this deal," Fitch said.