Moody's Seeks Comment on MBS Enhancement

Moody's Investors Service is seeking market comment on five proposed enhancements to the securitization process for U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities. The specific enhancements are stronger representations and warranties, independent third-party pre-securitization review of underlying mortgages, standardized post-securitization forensic review, expanded loan-level data reporting of initial mortgage pool and ongoing loan performance, and more-comprehensive originator assessments. "Based on Moody's assessment of factors that have lead to recent underperformance of subprime and alt-A mortgage securitizations, Moody's believes that implementation of these enhancements will materially improve performance of future mortgage securitizations," the rating agency said. Moody's said the deadline for comments on the move is April 11. The rating agency can be found online at http://www.moodys.com.