New York, August 22, 2012 -- Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the rating of 1 tranche,
and confirmed the ratings of 2 tranches from two RMBS transactions,
backed by Scratch and Dent loans, issued by C-BASS.
RATINGS RATIONALE
The actions are a result of the recent performance review of Scratch and
Dent pools and reflect Moody's updated loss expectations on these pools.
The downgrade in today's rating action is a result of deteriorating performance
and structural features resulting in higher expected losses for the bond
than previously anticipated.
The methodologies used in these ratings were "Moody's Approach to Rating
US Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities" published in December
2008, and "US RMBS Surveillance Methodology for Scratch and Dent"
published in May 2011. Please see the Credit Policy page on www.moodys.com
for a copy of these methodologies.
Moody's adjusts the methodologies noted above for Moody's current view
on loan modifications. As a result of an extension of the Home
Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) to 2013 and an increased use of
private modifications, Moody's is extending its previous view that
loan modifications will only occur through the end of 2012. It
is now assuming that the loan modifications will continue at current levels
until the end of 2013.
The above RMBS approach only applies to structures with at least 40 loans
and a pool factor of greater than 5%. Moody's can withdraw
its rating when the pool factor drops below 5% and the number of
loans in the deal declines to 40 loans or lower. If, however,
a transaction has a specific structural feature, such as a credit
enhancement floor, that mitigates the risks of small pool size,
Moody's can choose to continue to rate the transaction. Please
refer further to Moody's Investors Service's Withdrawal Policy,
which can be found on our website, www.moodys.com.
When assigning the final ratings to the bonds, in addition to the
methodologies described above, we considered the volatility of the
projected losses and timeline of the expected defaults.
The primary sources of assumption uncertainty are our central macroeconomic
forecast and performance volatility as a result of servicer-related
activity such as modifications. The unemployment rate fell from
9.1% in June 2011 to 8.2% in June 2012.
Moody's forecasts a further drop to 7.8% by the end of 2Q
2013. Moody's expects housing prices to remain stable through the
remainder of 2012 before gradually rising towards the end of 2013.
Performance of RMBS continues to remain highly dependent on servicer activity
such as modification-related principal forgiveness and interest
rate reductions. Any change resulting from servicing transfers
or other policy or regulatory change can also impact the performance of
these transactions .
Complete rating actions are as follows:
Issuer: C-BASS 2003-RP1 Trust
Cl. M-1, Downgraded to Caa2 (sf); previously
on Apr 19, 2012 Caa1 (sf) Placed Under Review for Possible Downgrade
Issuer: C-BASS Mortgage Loan Asset-Backed Certificates,
Series 2006-SC1
Cl. M-4, Confirmed at B2 (sf); previously on
Apr 19, 2012 B2 (sf) Placed Under Review for Possible Downgrade
Cl. M-5, Confirmed at Caa2 (sf); previously on
Apr 19, 2012 Caa2 (sf) Placed Under Review for Possible Downgrade
A list of these actions including CUSIP identifiers may be found at:
Excel: http://www.moodys.com/viewresearchdoc.aspx?docid=PBS_SF295850
A list of updated estimated pool losses and sensitivity analysis is being
posted on an ongoing basis for the duration of this review period and
may be found at:
Excel: http://www.moodys.com/viewresearchdoc.aspx?docid=PBS_SF247004
For more information please see www.moodys.com.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
The Global Scale Credit Ratings on this press release that are issued
by one of Moody's affiliates outside the EU are endorsed by Moody's
Investors Service Ltd., One Canada Square, Canary Wharf,
London E 14 5FA, UK, in accordance with Art.4 paragraph
3 of the Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 on Credit Rating Agencies.
Further information on the EU endorsement status and on the Moody's
office that has issued a particular Credit Rating is available on www.moodys.com.
For ratings issued on a program, series or category/class of debt,
this announcement provides relevant regulatory disclosures in relation
to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series
or category/class of debt or pursuant to a program for which the ratings
are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's
rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider,
this announcement provides relevant regulatory disclosures in relation
to the rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular
rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the
support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings,
this announcement provides relevant regulatory disclosures in relation
to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive
rating that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt,
in each case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed
prior to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would
have affected the rating. For further information please see the
ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.
Information sources used to prepare each of the ratings are the following:
parties involved in the ratings, parties not involved in the ratings,
public information, confidential and proprietary Moody's Investors
Service information, and confidential and proprietary Moody's
Analytics information.
Moody's received and took into account a third party assessment
on the due diligence performed regarding the underlying assets or financial
instruments in these transactions and the assessment had a neutral impact
on the rating.
Moody's considers the quality of information available on the rated
entities, obligations or credits satisfactory for the purposes of
issuing these ratings.
Moody's adopts all necessary measures so that the information it
uses in assigning the ratings is of sufficient quality and from sources
Moody's considers to be reliable including, when appropriate,
independent third-party sources. However, Moody's
is not an auditor and cannot in every instance independently verify or
validate information received in the rating process.
Please see the ratings disclosure page on www.moodys.com
for general disclosure on potential conflicts of interests.
Please see the ratings disclosure page on www.moodys.com
for information on (A) MCO's major shareholders (above 5%) and
for (B) further information regarding certain affiliations that may exist
between directors of MCO and rated entities as well as (C) the names of
entities that hold ratings from MIS that have also publicly reported to
the SEC an ownership interest in MCO of more than 5%. A
member of the board of directors of this rated entity may also be a member
of the board of directors of a shareholder of Moody's Corporation;
however, Moody's has not independently verified this matter.
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.
Minxi Qiu
Associate 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
Amita Shrivastava
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 Takes Action on $12 million of US Scratch and Dent RMBS issued by C-BASS