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| High-touch collections and effective technology led to an upgrade of Green Tree Servicing LLC’s nonprime servicer ratings. The upgrade is the second in as many months.The primary servicer rating for the St. Paul, Minn.-based company was increased to SQ3+ from SQ3 by Moody’s Investors Service, an announcement today said. The upgrade impacts residential subprime and second lien mortgages.
Servicers are rated on a scale of one-to-five, with one being the strongest. Plus and minus signs are used to further detail the rating. Moody’s cited better than average collection and loss-mitigation abilities in its upgrade. The ratings agency noted that Green Tree’s nonprime servicing operation, which was integrated with its manufactured housing servicing unit, uses centralized collections for customer service and handling borrowers who are less than 30 days past due. But loans delinquent 30 days or more are handled from approximately 29 regional offices and 3 centers. Borrowers who are between 30 and 59 days delinquent that can’t be reached by phone are handled by internal field chasers. “Green Tree’s collections unit combines solid technology infrastructure with individual account ownership,” Moody’s stated. Green Tree, which is owned by an investor consortium led by Centerbridge Partners, L.P., serviced 707,522 loans for $24.8 billion as of Dec. 31, 2008. Included in its servicing portfolio was $2.3 billion in subprime loans, $5.2 billion in second liens and $17.4 billion in manufactured housing loans. In December, Fitch Ratings upgraded Green Tree’s primary servicer ratings to RPS2- from RPS3+ for subprime and high loan-to-value mortgages. Fitch cited solid operations, robust servicing technology and the implementation of additional Web and servicing system capabilities. Related: |
