Moody's Rates 1st Nonconforming Dutch Deal

The first securitization of nonconforming residential mortgages from the Netherlands, Eurosail-NL 2007-1 BV, has come to market, according to Moody's Investors Service.A Dutch subsidiary of Wall Street firm Lehman Brothers originated the loans, the rating agency said. The borrowers who took out the loans in the deal have current or cured delinquencies recorded with the Dutch credit bureau, have self-certified their income, or have some combination of these characteristics, according to Moody's. "Moody's believes that these products are riskier than products which do not exhibit these characteristics, and that there is some uncertainty as to how the pool would perform during an economic downturn," the rating agency said. Moody's has assigned ratings to five classes in the deal ranging from an investment-grade Aaa to a speculative-grade Ba3. Moody's can be found online at http://www.moodys.com.