New York, March 18, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service, ("Moody's") has
upgraded the ratings of seven tranches and downgraded the rating of one
tranche from six transactions backed by Subprime and Alt-A mortgage
loans, issued by multiple issuers.
Complete rating actions are as follows:
Issuer: First Franklin Mortgage Loan Trust 2006-FF12
Cl. A4, Upgraded to Aa1 (sf); previously on Apr 9,
2018 Upgraded to Aa3 (sf)
Issuer: RASC Series 2004-KS8 Trust
Cl. M-I-1, Upgraded to Aaa (sf); previously
on Dec 11, 2018 Upgraded to Aa1 (sf)
Cl. M-I-2, Upgraded to Baa2 (sf); previously
on Dec 11, 2018 Upgraded to Baa3 (sf)
Issuer: RASC Series 2005-EMX4 Trust
Cl. M-3, Upgraded to Baa1 (sf); previously on
Jul 25, 2019 Upgraded to Baa3 (sf)
Issuer: Structured Asset Mortgage Investments II Trust 2004-AR7
Cl. X*, Downgraded to Caa3 (sf); previously on Dec
20, 2017 Confirmed at Caa2 (sf)
Issuer: Structured Asset Securities Corp Trust 2006-WF3
Cl. M1, Upgraded to Aa2 (sf); previously on May 9,
2018 Upgraded to A1 (sf)
Issuer: Structured Asset Securities Corp., Mortgage
Pass-Through Certificates, Series 2007-WF2
Cl. A-1, Upgraded to Aa2 (sf); previously on
May 9, 2018 Upgraded to A1 (sf)
Cl. A-4, Upgraded to Baa2 (sf); previously on
May 9, 2018 Upgraded to Ba1 (sf)
*Reflects Interest Only Classes
RATINGS RATIONALE
The rating upgrades are primarily due to an improvement in the performance
of the underlying pools and an increase in the credit enhancement available
to the bonds.
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 rating downgrade of Cl. X in Structured
Asset Mortgage Investments II Trust 2004-AR7 is due to an increase
in the realized loss on the Cl. B-1, which is a reference
tranche to the Cl. X notional amount.
The principal methodology used in rating all deals except interest-only
classes was "US RMBS Surveillance Methodology" published in February 2019.
The methodologies used in rating interest-only classes were "US
RMBS Surveillance Methodology" published in February 2019 and "Moody's
Approach to Rating Structured Finance Interest-Only (IO) Securities"
published in February 2019. Please see the list of ratings at the
top of this announcement to identify which classes are interest-only
(indicated by the *). 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 3.5% in February 2020 from 3.8%
in February 2019. Moody's forecasts an unemployment central range
of 3.8% to 4.2% for the 2020 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 2020. 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 and the associated
pool losses may be found at:
Excel: http://www.moodys.com/viewresearchdoc.aspx?docid=PBS_SF488019
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, category/class of
debt or security this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures
in relation to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the
same series, category/class of debt, security 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.
Gregory Violante
Associate Lead 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
Karandeep Bains
VP - Sr Credit Officer/Manager
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