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Wednesday, December 19, 2007

S&P Cuts Alt-A Mortgage Bonds

by Calculated Risk on 12/19/2007 06:29:00 PM

From Bloomberg: S&P Cuts Alt-A Mortgage Bonds; Analysts Warn on Prime

Standard & Poor's reduced its ratings on about $7 billion of Alt-A mortgage securities, citing a sustained surge in delinquencies during the past five months on loans considered a step above subprime.
...
Since July, late payments on Alt-A loans in bonds issued in 2005 have increased 37.3 percent to 8.62 percent, while delinquencies for such mortgages in 2006 securities rose 62.1 percent to 11.64 percent, S&P said.
The article also has some analyst comments on prime loans:
Prime ``jumbo'' mortgages from recent years packaged into securities also have rising delinquencies that may create losses among some bonds with investment-grade ratings, according to reports yesterday by New York-based securities analysts at Credit Suisse Group and UBS AG. ...

``It's not just a subprime problem,'' Joshua Rosner, managing director at New York-based research firm Graham Fisher & Co., said ...
We are all subprime now.