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| A Bank of America Corp. servicing subsidiary saw its Alt-A servicer rating upgraded.Fitch Ratings said Friday it raised Wilshire Credit Corp.’s primary servicer rating for Alt-A mortgages to RPS1 from RPS1-.
Servicers are rated on a one-to-five scale, with one being the strongest. Each rating can also include a plus or minus sign for further differentiation. Overall servicing expertise and an additional year of seasoning as an Alt-A servicer were cited for the upgrade. Wilshire serviced 148,428 loans for more than $21.2 billion as of Feb. 28, down from 158,370 loans reported at year-end 2008. Alt-A loans accounted for 10,500 units for $2.1 billion, and subprime loans were 64,300 for $12.7 billion. The company also serviced 53,000 closed-end second loans totaling $2.3 billion and acted as a special servicer on more than 16,800 loans for $3.5 billion. The move by Fitch came just six months after Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the Beaverton, Ore.-based company’s subprime primary servicer rating to SQ2+ over concern about credit markets, portfolio runoff and uncertainty about how the operation would fare after BoA’s Dec. 31 acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co. — the indirect parent of Wilshire. In the latest action, Fitch noted that its upgrade reflected the financial condition of parent Merrill. |
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