Moody's Eyeing RMBS/ABS Governance

The high number of structured finance deals done by unrated issuers, particularly in the residential mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities markets, has prompted Moody's Investors Service to begin formally assessing the "governance" of selected RMBS and ABS deals.Nicolas Weill, asset finance chief credit officer at Moody's, said the rating agency is specifically looking at the governance of the aforementioned deals because, "in the few instances where transactions have performed significantly below original expectations, transaction governance has often been the core issue." In assessing transaction governance, Moody's said it plans to look at "the level of oversight, controls and procedures in place in a deal that could mitigate the risk of loss to investors in a securitization." The rating agency can be found on the Web at http://www.moodys.com.