Amendment - Fitch Upgrades National City Home Loan Services' RESI Servicer Ratings.NEW YORK New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of -- (This is an amended version of a release sent out earlier today. The special servicer ratings have been updated.) Fitch Ratings Fitch Ratings An international rating agency for financial institutions, insurance companies, and corporate, sovereign, and municipal debt. Fitch Ratings has headquarters in New York and London and is wholly owned by FIMALAC of Paris. upgrades National City Home Loan Services' (HLS (Hue Lightness Saturation) A color space that is closely related to HSB, except that Brightness is called Lightness and is measured from 0 to 1 rather than from 0 to 100%. See HSB. ) residential primary servicer ratings for Alt-A and subprime products from 'RPS2-' to 'RPS2'. In addition, Fitch upgrades HLS's special servicer rating from 'RSS3+' to 'RSS2-'. The primary servicer ratings are based on the company's experienced management team, commitment to technology enhancements, and solid internal control environment. The special servicer rating reflects HLS' reliable default management and asset liquidation The collection of assets belonging to a debtor to be applied to the discharge of his or her outstanding debts. A type of proceeding pursuant to federal Bankruptcy methodologies. The ratings also reflect the financial strength of HLS's parent, National City Corporation (NCC NCC See National Clearing Corporation (NCC). ), rated 'AA-' by Fitch. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, HLS has been servicing loans for 20 years. As part of the national consumer finance business line of NCC, HLS performs branded servicing for NCC affiliate First Franklin Financial Corporation (FFFC FFFC Force Flow Fusion Center ). As of March 31, 2006, HLS serviced a portfolio of 294,120 loans with a principal balance of over $40 billion. Management indicates that it will continue to maintain its long term strategy of providing branded servicing for FFFC productions. Additionally, throughout 2005, HLS developed relationships with FFFC investors to provide additional servicing sources. This servicing initiative has resulted in HLS's retention of 79% of FFFC's deals sold in the secondary market over the past year. Since Fitch's last review HLS instituted a number of process improvements, enhanced its technology and upgraded its default and loss mitigation functions. To support its portfolio growth, the company has continued to build a strong management team and over the past year realigned management reporting structures and workflows in its servicing platform. Additionally, the servicer improved quality controls over the cashiering Cashiering (sometimes referred to a degradation ceremony, although that term may be used more generally in sociology) is a ritual dismissal of an individual from some position of responsibility for discipline. process by establishing a secure payment processing area. To provide an increased focus on first payment defaults, HLS established an early payment default team placing greater emphasis on front-end delinquencies. Fitch believes that HLS will remain a reliable servicer with dependable systems and effective loan administration and default management processes. However, Fitch will continue to monitor HLS's servicing platform for further operational changes as the company pursues its portfolio growth initiatives. Fitch rates residential mortgage primary, master and special servicers on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being the highest rating. Within some of these rating levels, Fitch further differentiates ratings by plus (+) and minus (-) symbols, as well as the flat rating. For more information on Fitch's residential servicer rating program, See Fitch's report 'Residential Mortgage Servicer Ratings,' dated Feb. 21, 2003, which is available on the Fitch ratings web site at 'www.fitchratings.com'. Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use Terms of Use are rules set up by the owner of an intellectual property or service to govern how they may be legally used. In many cases, terms of service are used as a contractual agreement between a company and users of a service they provide. of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, 'www.fitchratings.com'. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures Policies and Procedures are a set of documents that describe an organization's policies for operation and the procedures necessary to fulfill the policies. They are often initiated because of some external requirement, such as environmental compliance or other governmental are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site. |
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