NatCity Servicer Ratings Lowered

The residential servicer ratings of National City Mortgage have been downgraded from RPS1-minus to RPS2-plus by Fitch Ratings.The affected ratings were NatCity Mortgage's residential primary servicer ratings for prime product and for alternative-A product. Fitch said the actions were taken due to the weakening of the financial strength of NatCity Mortgage's parent, Cleveland-based National City Corp., whose rating was recently downgraded from AA-minus to A-plus. The rating outlook for the parent company is negative. Fitch said the downgrade of NatCity was based on "its weakened core financial performance." Fitch rates residential servicers on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the highest rating. Fitch can be found on the Web at http://www.fitchratings.com.