U.S. RESIDENTIAL MORTGAGE SERVICER ASSESSMENT ACTION
New York, February 05, 2013 -- Moody's Investors Service has confirmed U.S. Bank Home Mortgage
Residential Portfolio Management's (U.S. Bank Home
Mortgage RPM) Servicer Quality (SQ) assessment of 3+ as a primary
servicer of prime/Alt-A residential mortgage loans. The
assessment is no longer on review for downgrade.
U.S. Bank Home Mortgage RPM is a division of U.S.
Bank National Association, which acquired the residential loan portfolio
of Downey Savings and Loan Association from the FDIC in November 2008.
ASSESSMENT RATIONALE
The review for downgrade, initiated June 23, 2011 because
of foreclosure document execution concerns, was concluded.
U.S. Bank Home Mortgage RPM completed the review and remediation
of their affidavits and foreclosure document execution process,
making significant changes as a result of their internal reviews and compliance
with the OCC consent order.
Moody's prime/Alt -A servicer assessment is based on U.S.
Bank Home Mortgage RPM's average collection abilities, above
average loss mitigation results, average foreclosure and REO timeline
management and above average servicing stability.
The collections category was affirmed at average. The company continues
to invest in collection and customer service call center technology.
The company's roll rate performance results improved compared to
the prior review. For loss mitigation, the category assessment
was affirmed at above average. The company had a higher volume
of short sales in relation to other servicers we assess.
The stability assessment was lowered to above average from strong mainly
due to the continued decline in the servicing portfolio. U.S.
Bank Home Mortgage RPM's servicing portfolio totaled approximately
$ 7.1 billion in unpaid principal balance as of September
2012. U.S. Bank Home Mortgage RPM is a division of
U.S. Bank, N.A., which is rated
Aa3 for long term deposits. U.S. Bank, N.A.
is a wholly-owned subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp rated
A1 for senior unsecured debt.
The previous assessment action for U.S. Bank Home Mortgage
RPM SQ assessment occurred on June 23, 2011. At that time,
we assigned U.S. Bank Home Mortgage RPM an SQ3+ as
a Prime/Alt-A servicer and placed the assessment on review for
downgrade.
Moody's SQ assessments represent its view of a servicer's ability to prevent
or mitigate asset pool losses across changing markets. The assessment
scale ranges from SQ1 (strong) to SQ5 (weak). Where appropriate,
a "+" or "-" modifier will be appended to the relevant assessment
to indicate a servicer's relative servicing quality within a particular
category.
The principal methodology used in this assessment was "Moody's Approach
to Rating Residential Mortgage Servicers" published in January 2001.
Please see the Credit Policy page on www.moodys.com for
a copy of this methodology.
Other Factors used in this assessment are described in "Updated Moody's
Servicer Quality Rating Scale and Definitions" published in May 2005.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
For any affected securities or rated entities receiving direct credit
support from the primary entity(ies) of this rating action, and
whose ratings may change as a result of this rating action, the
associated regulatory disclosures will be those of the guarantor entity.
Exceptions to this approach exist for the following disclosures,
if applicable to jurisdiction: Ancillary Services, Disclosure
to rated entity, Disclosure from rated entity.
Please see Moody's Rating Symbols and Definitions on the Rating
Process page on www.moodys.com for further information on
the meaning of each rating category and the definition of default and
recovery.
Please see ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com
for the last rating action and the rating history. The date on
which some ratings were first released goes back to a time before Moody's
ratings were fully digitized and accurate data may not be available.
Consequently, Moody's provides a date that it believes is
the most reliable and accurate based on the information that is available
to it. Please see the ratings disclosure page on our website www.moodys.com
for further information.
Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to
the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has
issued the rating.
Francis Wissman
Asst Vice President - Analyst
Structured Finance Group
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
William E Fricke
VP - Senior Credit Officer
Structured Finance Group
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
Releasing Office:
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
Moody's confirms U.S. Bank Home Mortgage RPM prime SQ assessment