New York, July 19, 2012 -- Moody's Investors Service has upgraded the ratings of two ratings and
confirmed the rating of one tranche issued by Chase Funding Trust,
Series 2004-1. This transaction is backed primarily by first-lien,
Subprime loans.
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.
Our ratings on the certificates take into account the cash flow waterfall
and trigger definitions described in the Pooling and Servicing agreement.
For Group I certificates the Trustee's calculation of Senior Enhancement
Percentage is not consistent with Moody's interpretation of the
transaction documents. As per the Trustee's calculation the
triggers are passing and mezzanine certificates are receiving principal
payments. Moody's has notified the Trustee of this issue.
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.
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).
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.
Complete rating actions are as follows:
Issuer: Chase Funding Trust, Series 2004-1
Cl. IA-6, Confirmed at Ba1 (sf); previously on
Jan 31, 2012 Ba1 (sf) Placed Under Review for Possible Upgrade
Cl. IIM-2, Upgraded to Ca (sf); previously on
Mar 7, 2011 Downgraded to C (sf)
Cl. IIB, Upgraded to Ca (sf); previously on Mar 7,
2011 Downgraded to C (sf)
A list of these actions including CUSIP identifiers may be found at:
Excel: http://www.moodys.com/viewresearchdoc.aspx?docid=PBS_SF290089
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.
Information sources used to prepare the rating 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 this transaction and the assessments had a neutral impact
on the rating.
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 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.
Maxim Pertsov
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 $20 million of Subprime RMBS issued by Chase Funding Trust, Series 2004-1