Fitch Upgrades Fremont Investment & Loan's RESI Servicer Rating to 'RPS3+'.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 -- 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 Fremont Investment & Loan's (FIL) residential primary servicer rating for subprime product from 'RPS3' to 'RPS3+'. The rating is based on the company's experienced management team, commitment to technology enhancements, and capable loan administration and default management processes. The rating also reflects the financial strength of FIL's parent, Fremont General Corporation (FGC FGC Female Genital Cutting (Africa) FGC Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan Railway system) FGC Friends General Conference (Quakers) FGC Family Group Conference ), rated 'BB-' by Fitch. With servicing offices located in Ontario, California Ontario is a city located in San Bernardino County, California, United States. As of the 2000 Census, the city had a total population of 170,373. It is the home of LA/Ontario International Airport and the huge Ontario Mills shopping mall (the largest in Southern California and one and Irving, Texas, FIL is wholly owned subsidiary Wholly Owned Subsidiary A subsidiary whose parent company owns 100% of its common stock. Notes: In other words, the parent company owns the company outright and there are no minority owners. of FGC and has been servicing subprime loans for over 12 years. As of May 31, 2006, FIL serviced a portfolio of 116,404 loans with a principal balance of over $23.9 billion. Management indicates that it will continue to maintain its long term strategy of providing branded servicing for FIL loan production and it is expected that the year end 2006 servicing portfolio will reach approximately $28 billion. During the year, FIL embarked on the expansion of its servicing operations to a second servicing site in Irving, TX. With initial staffing for customer service, collections, and loss mitigation the Irving site provides FIL with an expanded capacity for growth, access to the Dallas labor market labor market A place where labor is exchanged for wages; an LM is defined by geography, education and technical expertise, occupation, licensure or certification requirements, and job experience and redundant servicing capabilities for disaster planning. Since the prior Fitch review, FIL continued to refine its servicing platform through operational and technological improvements that have further enhanced the efficiencies and productivity of the company. To support its portfolio growth, the company continued to build a strong management team adding leadership positions in the training, call center, and process management areas. Additionally, the servicer improved its technology infrastructure, providing integration of bankruptcy and foreclosure attorney communications directly to the servicing system, implementing an electronic bill presentment and processing application, and upgrading its IVR (Interactive Voice Response) An automated telephone information system that speaks to the caller with a combination of fixed voice menus and data extracted from databases in real time. for greater utilization and bi-lingual options. Fitch believes that FIL has the requisite management and staff experience, technology and controls necessary to manage its projected growth. However, Fitch will continue to monitor the company's servicing platform for further operational changes as it continues to increase its servicing portfolio and expand its operations into two geographically dispersed servicing sites. Fitch Ratings 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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