New York, December 14, 2012 -- Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) has confirmed the rating on one tranche
from Equity One Mortgage Pass-Through Trust 2003-4.
The collateral backing these transactions are subprime residential mortgage
loans.
Complete rating actions are as follows:
Issuer: Equity One Mortgage Pass-Through Trust 2003-4
AV-2, Confirmed at Baa2 (sf); previously on May 3,
2012 Downgraded to Baa2 (sf) and Remained On Review for Possible Downgrade
RATINGS RATIONALE
The actions are a result of the recent performance review of Subprime
pools originated before 2005 and reflect Moody's updated loss expectations
on these pools.
The methodologies used in this rating were "Moody's Approach to Rating
US Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities" published in December
2008 and "Pre-2005 US RMBS Surveillance Methodology" published
in January 2012. Please see the Credit Policy page on www.moodys.com
for a copy of these methodologies.
Today's rating actions reflect recent collateral performance, our
updated loss timing curves and detailed analysis of timing and amount
of credit enhancement released due to step-down. We capture
structural nuances by running each individual pool through a variety of
loss and prepayment scenarios in the Structured Finance Workstation®
(SFW), the cash flow model developed by Moody's Wall Street Analytics.
This individual pool level analysis incorporates performance variations
across the different pools and the structure of the transaction.
The above mentioned approach "Pre-2005 US RMBS Surveillance Methodology"
is adjusted slightly when estimating losses on pools left with a small
number of loans to account for the volatile nature of small pools.
Even if a few loans in a small pool become delinquent, there could
be a large increase in the overall pool delinquency level due to the concentration
risk. To project losses on pools with fewer than 100 loans,
Moody's first estimates a "baseline" average rate of new delinquencies
for the pool that is dependent on the vintage of loan origination (11%
for all vintages 2004 and prior). The baseline rates are higher
than the average rate of new delinquencies for larger pools for the respective
vintages.
Once the baseline rate is set, further adjustments are made based
on 1) the number of loans remaining in the pool and 2) the level of current
delinquencies in the pool. The volatility of pool performance increases
as the number of loans remaining in the pool decreases. Once the
loan count in a pool falls below 75, the rate of delinquency is
increased by 1% for every loan less than 75. For example,
for a pool with 74 loans from the 2004 vintage, the adjusted rate
of new delinquency would be 11.11%. In addition,
if current delinquency levels in a small pool is low, future delinquencies
are expected to reflect this trend. To account for that,
the rate calculated above is multiplied by a factor ranging from 0.85
to 2.25 for current delinquencies ranging from less than 10%
to greater than 50% respectively. Delinquencies for subsequent
years and ultimate expected losses are projected using the approach described
in the methodology publication listed above.
When assigning the final ratings to senior bonds, in addition to
the methodologies described above, we considered the volatility
of the projected losses and timeline of the expected defaults.
For bonds backed by small pools, we also considered the current
pipeline composition as well as any specific loss allocation rules that
could preserve or deplete the overcollateralization available for the
senior bonds at different pace.
The above methodology only applies to pools with at least 40 loans and
a pool factor of greater than 5%. Moody's may withdraw its
rating when the pool factor drops below 5% and the number of loans
in the pool declines to 40 loans or lower unless specific structural features
allow for a monitoring of the transaction (such as a credit enhancement
floor).
To assess the rating implications of the updated loss levels on subprime
RMBS, each individual pool was run through a variety of scenarios
in the Structured Finance Workstation® (SFW), the cash flow
model developed by Moody's Wall Street Analytics. This individual
pool level analysis incorporates performance variances across the different
pools and the structural features of the transaction including priorities
of payment distribution among the different tranches, average life
of the tranches, current balances of the tranches and future cash
flows under expected and stressed scenarios. The scenarios include
ninety-six different combinations comprising of six loss levels,
four loss timing curves and four prepayment curves. The volatility
in losses experienced by a tranche due to extended foreclosure timelines
by servicers is taken into consideration when assigning ratings.
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
9.0% in September 2011 to 7.8% in September
2012. Moody's expects the unemployment rate to stay between 7.5%
and 8.5% in 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.
A list of these actions including CUSIP identifiers may be found at:
Excel: http://www.moodys.com/viewresearchdoc.aspx?docid=PBS_SF310934
A list of updated estimated pool losses, sensitivity analysis,
and tranche recovery details 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_SF237255
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.
Moody's considers the quality of information available on the rated
entity, obligation or credit satisfactory for the purposes of issuing
a rating.
Moody's adopts all necessary measures so that the information it
uses in assigning a rating 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 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 confirmed $0.6 million Subprime RMBS issued by Equity One Mortgage Pass-Through Trust 2003-4