Moody's Downgrades 800+ Subprime Classes

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the ratings of more than 800 tranches in nearly 100 subprime residential mortgage-backed securities transactions from six issuers. The affected securities were as follows: 286 tranches from 30 issues by First Franklin Mortgage Loan Trust; 220 tranches from 25 issues by Citigroup Mortgage Loan Trust; 208 tranches from 27 issues by Securitized Asset Backed Receivables LLC Trust; 90 tranches from 12 issues by Specialty Underwriting and Residential Finance; 27 tranches from three issues by Aegis Asset Backed Securities Trust; and 14 tranches from two issues by Park Place Securities Inc. Of the downgraded tranches, 164 remain on review for possible further downgrade. Moody's said the downgrades were based, in general, on higher-than-expected rates of delinquency, foreclosure, and real estate owned in the underlying collateral relative to credit enhancement levels. The collateral consists primarily of first-lien, fixed- and adjustable-rate subprime residential mortgage loans.