Moody's Eyes Long Beach HEL Classes

Two home equity loan pass-through certificates from a deal issued by Long Beach Mortgage Co. in 2000 have been placed under review for possible downgrade by Moody's Investors Service.The affected securities are classes M2V and BV of Asset Backed Securities Corp., Long Beach Home Equity Loan Trust 2000-LB1. The transaction is backed by primarily first-lien adjustable- and fixed-rate subprime mortgages originated by Long Beach. Two subordinate classes from the adjustable-rate group were placed on review for possible downgrade because credit enhancement levels may be low given the projected losses on the underlying pools, Moody's said. The transaction has taken significant losses, causing gradual erosion of the overcollateralization, the rating agency reported.