Fitch Eyes First American Ratings

Fitch Ratings has placed all its ratings on Santa Ana, Calif.-based First American Corp. and its title insurance subsidiaries on Rating Watch Negative because the company expects to post a fourth-quarter loss of up to $50 million. Moreover, the title insurance segment's results will be affected by further adverse reserve development, the rating agency said. Fitch said it is likely to lower First American's ratings by one notch following a review of the full-year results when they are formally released. The proposed split at First American means the title business would not be negatively affected by higher leverage from future acquisitions by the information services segment. But the current rating action is related to below-expectations performance in the title business.