New York, March 03, 2015 -- Moody's Investors Service has upgraded the ratings of five tranches,
and downgraded the ratings of two tranches issued by various issuers,
backed by Subprime mortgage loans.
Complete rating actions are as follows:
Issuer: Merrill Lynch Mortgage Investors, Inc. 2003-WMC3
Cl. M-3, Upgraded to Baa3 (sf); previously on
Apr 8, 2014 Upgraded to Ba3 (sf)
Issuer: New Century Home Equity Loan Trust, Series 2004-A
Cl. A-II-7, Upgraded to Ba1 (sf); previously
on Apr 8, 2014 Upgraded to B1 (sf)
Underlying Rating: Upgraded to Ba1 (sf); previously on Apr
8, 2014 Upgraded to B1 (sf)
Financial Guarantor: Financial Guaranty Insurance Company (Insured
Rating Withdrawn Mar 25, 2009)
Cl. A-II-8, Upgraded to Ba2 (sf); previously
on Apr 8, 2014 Upgraded to B1 (sf)
Underlying Rating: Upgraded to Ba2 (sf); previously on Apr
8, 2014 Upgraded to B1 (sf)
Financial Guarantor: Financial Guaranty Insurance Company (Insured
Rating Withdrawn Mar 25, 2009)
Cl. A-II-9, Upgraded to Ba1 (sf); previously
on Apr 8, 2014 Upgraded to B1 (sf)
Underlying Rating: Upgraded to Ba1 (sf); previously on Apr
8, 2014 Upgraded to B1 (sf)
Financial Guarantor: Financial Guaranty Insurance Company (Insured
Rating Withdrawn Mar 25, 2009)
Cl. M-II, Upgraded to Caa1 (sf); previously on
Apr 8, 2014 Upgraded to Caa2 (sf)
Issuer: Terwin Mortgage Trust, Series TMTS 2004-3HE
Cl. M-1, Downgraded to A3 (sf); previously on
Mar 4, 2011 Downgraded to A1 (sf)
Cl. M-1-X, Downgraded to A3 (sf); previously
on Mar 4, 2011 Downgraded to A1 (sf)
RATINGS RATIONALE
The actions are a result of the recent performance of the underlying pools
and reflect Moody's updated loss expectations on the pools. The
rating upgrades are a result of improving performance of the related pools
and/or faster pay-down of the bonds due to high prepayments/faster
liquidations. The downgrades are the result of the ongoing reduction
in credit enhancement due to principal paydown on the subordinates.
The principal methodology used in these ratings was "US RMBS Surveillance
Methodology" published in November 2013. Please see the Credit
Policy page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.
Factors that would lead to an upgrade or downgrade of the rating:
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 5.7% in January 2015 from 6.6%
in January 2014. Moody's forecasts an unemployment central range
of 5% to 6% for the 2015 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 2015. Lower increases than
Moody's expects or decreases could lead to negative rating actions.
Finally, 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.
A list of these actions including CUSIP identifiers may be found at:
Excel: http://www.moodys.com/viewresearchdoc.aspx?docid=PBS_SF398513
A list of updated estimated pool losses and recoveries 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_SF345728
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.
Moody's did not receive or take into account a third party assessment
on the due diligence performed regarding the underlying assets or financial
instruments related to the monitoring of these transactions in the past
six months.
The analysis relies on an assessment of collateral characteristics to
determine the collateral loss distribution, that is, the function
that correlates to an assumption about the likelihood of occurrence to
each level of possible losses in the collateral. As a second step,
Moody's evaluates each possible collateral loss scenario using a
model that replicates the relevant structural features to derive payments
and therefore the ultimate potential losses for each rated instrument.
The loss a rated instrument incurs in each collateral loss scenario,
weighted by assumptions about the likelihood of events in that scenario
occurring, results in the expected loss of the rated instrument.
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 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 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 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.
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.
Mark K Branton
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
Deepika Kothari
VP - Sr Credit Officer/Manager
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 $103.8 Million of Subprime RMBS issued by various issuers