New York, August 22, 2018 -- Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) has downgraded the ratings of
eleven interest-only (IO) bonds from nine transactions, backed
by Alt-A, Option ARM, and Prime Jumbo RMBS loans,
issued by multiple issuers.
Complete rating actions are as follows:
Issuer: Banc of America Funding 2006-6 Trust, Mortgage
Pass-Through Certificates, 2006-6
Cl. 1-A-11, Downgraded to Caa3 (sf); previously
on Oct 27, 2017 Confirmed at Caa2 (sf)
Issuer: Chevy Chase Funding LLC, Mortgage-Backed Certificates,
Series 2005-2
Cl. NIO, Downgraded to C (sf); previously on Oct 27,
2017 Confirmed at Ca (sf)
Issuer: Chevy Chase Funding LLC, Mortgage-Backed Certificates,
Series 2007-1
Cl. NIO, Downgraded to C (sf); previously on Oct 27,
2017 Confirmed at Ca (sf)
Issuer: Freddie Mac Securities REMIC Trust 2005-S001
Cl. X, Downgraded to C (sf); previously on Dec 21,
2017 Downgraded to Ca (sf)
Issuer: IndyMac INDX Mortgage Loan Trust 2005-AR13
Cl. 2-X, Downgraded to C (sf); previously on
Oct 27, 2017 Confirmed at Ca (sf)
Cl. 3-X, Downgraded to C (sf); previously on
Oct 27, 2017 Confirmed at Ca (sf)
Issuer: Morgan Stanley Mortgage Loan Trust 2007-8XS
Cl. A-14, Downgraded to C (sf); previously on
Aug 12, 2010 Downgraded to Caa2 (sf)
Cl. A-18, Downgraded to C (sf); previously on
Aug 12, 2010 Downgraded to Caa3 (sf)
Issuer: Structured Asset Mortgage Investments II Trust 2003-AR4
Cl. X, Downgraded to Caa3 (sf); previously on Oct 27,
2017 Confirmed at Caa2 (sf)
Issuer: Structured Asset Mortgage Investments Trust 2002-AR3
Cl. X, Downgraded to Caa3 (sf); previously on Oct 27,
2017 Confirmed at Caa2 (sf)
Issuer: Structured Asset Mortgage Investments Trust 2002-AR4
Cl. X, Downgraded to Caa3 (sf); previously on Oct 27,
2017 Confirmed at Caa2 (sf)
RATINGS RATIONALE
The factors that Moody's considers in rating an IO bond depend on the
type of referenced securities or assets to which the IO bond is linked.
Generally, the ratings on IO bonds reflect the linkage and performance
of the respective transactions, including expected losses on the
collateral, and pay-downs or write-offs of the related
reference bonds. The downgrade actions on Cl. A-14
and Cl. A-18 from Morgan Stanley Mortgage Loan Trust 2007-8XS
to C(sf) reflects the nonpayment of interest for an extended period of
33 months.
The methodologies used in these ratings were "US RMBS Surveillance Methodology"
published in January 2017 and "Moody's Approach to Rating Structured Finance
Interest-Only (IO) Securities" published in June 2017 .
Please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com
for a copy of these methodologies.
Factors that would lead to an upgrade or downgrade of the ratings:
Ratings in the US RMBS sector remain exposed to the high level of macroeconomic
uncertainty, and in particular the unemployment rate. The
unemployment rate fell to 3.9% in July 2018 from 4.3%
in July 2017. Moody's forecasts an unemployment central range of
3.5% to 4.5% for the 2018 year. Deviations
from this central scenario could lead to rating actions in the sector.
House prices are another key driver of US RMBS performance. Moody's
expects house prices to continue to rise in 2018. Lower increases
than Moody's expects or decreases could lead to negative rating actions.
Performance of RMBS continues to remain highly dependent on servicer procedures.
Any change resulting from servicing transfers or other policy or regulatory
change can impact the performance of these transactions.
An IO bond may be upgraded or downgraded, within the constraints
and provisions of the IO methodology, based on lower or higher realized
and expected loss due to an overall improvement or decline in the credit
quality of the reference bonds and/or pools.
A list of these actions including CUSIP identifiers may be found at:
Excel: http://www.moodys.com/viewresearchdoc.aspx?docid=PBS_SF473950
For more information please see www.moodys.com.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
For further specification of Moody's key rating assumptions and sensitivity
analysis, see the sections Methodology Assumptions and Sensitivity
to Assumptions of the disclosure form.
The analysis includes an assessment of collateral characteristics and
performance to determine the expected collateral loss or a range of expected
collateral losses or cash flows to the rated instruments. As a
second step, Moody's estimates expected collateral losses or cash
flows using a quantitative tool that takes into account credit enhancement,
loss allocation and other structural features, to derive the expected
loss for each rated instrument.
Moody's quantitative analysis entails an evaluation of scenarios
that stress factors contributing to sensitivity of ratings and take into
account the likelihood of severe collateral losses or impaired cash flows.
Moody's weights the impact on the rated instruments based on its
assumptions of the likelihood of the events in such scenarios occurring.
For ratings issued on a program, series or category/class of debt,
this announcement provides certain 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 certain regulatory disclosures in relation
to the credit rating action on the support provider and in relation to
each particular credit rating action for securities that derive their
credit ratings from the support provider's credit rating.
For provisional ratings, this announcement provides certain 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.
For any affected securities or rated entities receiving direct credit
support from the primary entity(ies) of this credit rating action,
and whose ratings may change as a result of this credit 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.
Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit
rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating
review.
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.
Please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com
for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.
Ilana Fried
Analyst
Structured Finance Group
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376
Client Service: 1 212 553 1653
Soumya Vasudevan
VP - Senior Analyst
Structured Finance Group
JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376
Client Service: 1 212 553 1653
Releasing Office:
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376
Client Service: 1 212 553 1653