Fitch Eyeing Securitizer Performance

The residential mortgage-backed securities group of Fitch Ratings has introduced issuer securitization performance reports, citing investor interest in more comprehensive performance measures in the jumbo market.The reports focus on Fitch's view of the improvement in collateral composition and the comparative performance of an issuer's jumbo product from 1996 to 2001. They also compare the subordinate bond performance of an issuer with Fitch's rating expectations. In addition, Fitch briefly covers the issuer's securitization history -- including shelf registration designations, origination volumes, and Fitch rating history -- and provides a history of all rating changes that will support current credit enhancement levels. To date, Fitch has published two reports that cover the securitization performance of GMAC-RFC's RFMSI (dated July 30) and CitiMortgage's CMSI (dated Nov. 7).