New York, September 04, 2012 -- Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) has upgraded the rating on one tranche
and confirmed the ratings on nine tranches from five subprime RMBS transactions
issued ABSC. The collateral backing these transactions are subprime
residential mortgage loans.
Complete rating actions are as follows:
Issuer: Asset Backed Securities Corporation Home Equity Loan Trust
2005-HE1
Cl. M1, Confirmed at Baa2 (sf); previously on May 30,
2012 Baa2 (sf) Placed Under Review for Possible Upgrade
Issuer: Asset Backed Securities Corporation Home Equity Loan Trust
2005-HE3
Cl. M3, Confirmed at Ba2 (sf); previously on May 30,
2012 Ba2 (sf) Placed Under Review for Possible Upgrade
Cl. M4, Confirmed at Caa2 (sf); previously on May 30,
2012 Caa2 (sf) Placed Under Review for Possible Upgrade
Cl. M5, Confirmed at C (sf); previously on May 30,
2012 C (sf) Placed Under Review for Possible Upgrade
Issuer: Asset Backed Securities Corporation Home Equity Loan Trust
2005-HE4
Cl. M4, Confirmed at B1 (sf); previously on May 30,
2012 B1 (sf) Placed Under Review for Possible Upgrade
Cl. M5, Confirmed at Caa3 (sf); previously on May 30,
2012 Caa3 (sf) Placed Under Review for Possible Upgrade
Issuer: Asset Backed Securities Corporation Home Equity Loan Trust
2005-HE5
Cl. M2, Confirmed at Baa3 (sf); previously on May 30,
2012 Baa3 (sf) Placed Under Review for Possible Upgrade
Cl. M3, Confirmed at B3 (sf); previously on May 30,
2012 B3 (sf) Placed Under Review for Possible Upgrade
Cl. M4, Confirmed at C (sf); previously on May 30,
2012 C (sf) Placed Under Review for Possible Upgrade
Issuer: Asset Backed Securities Corporation Home Equity Loan Trust
2005-HE7
Cl. M2, Upgraded to Ba1 (sf); previously on May 30,
2012 Ba2 (sf) Placed Under Review for Possible Upgrade
RATINGS RATIONALE
The actions are a result of the recent performance of Subprime pools originated
after 2005 and reflect Moody's updated loss expectations on these pools.
The upgrade in today's rating action are a result of improving performance
and/or structural features resulting in lower expected losses for certain
bonds 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 "2005 -- 2008 US RMBS Surveillance Methodology"
published in July 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.
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 source of assumption uncertainty is the uncertainty in our
central macroeconomic forecast and performance volatility due to servicer-related
issues. The unemployment rate fell from 9.0% in April
2011 to 8.2% in June 2012. Moody's forecasts a further
drop to 7.8% for 2013. Moody's expects house prices
to drop another 1% from their 4Q2011 levels before gradually rising
towards the end of 2013. 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:
http://www.moodys.com/viewresearchdoc.aspx?docid=PBS_SF296445
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:
http://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBS_SF198689
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 one or more third party assessments
on the due diligence performed regarding the underlying assets or financial
instruments in these transactions and the assessments 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.
Qiuzi Huang
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 $197 million subprime RMBS issued by ABSC