Fitch Ratings has affirmed Aurora Loan Services L.L.C.’s ‘RPS2+’ residential primary servicer rating for Alt-A products and its ‘RSS2-‘ residential special servicer rating, the rating agency said in a statement today. In addition, Fitch said it has affirmed Aurora’s residential master servicer rating of ‘RMS1-‘. With servicing offices located in Scottsbluff, NE, Littleton, CO, and Mumbai, India, Aurora is a subsidiary of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and has been servicing Alt-A loans for over eight years. The Littleton facility consists primarily of special servicing, cash management, investor relations and master servicing functions while primary servicing functions and loan document imaging are handled out of the company’s Scottsbluff location. The satellite office in Mumbai continues to handle production support activities. In April 2006, Aurora broke ground on a new 175,000 square foot facility in Scottsbluff. The facility is expected to be complete in the third quarter of 2007 and has planned capacity for 900 employees.
As of June 30, 2006, Fitch reported that Aurora primary portfolio of nearly 426,000 loans totaled over $84.7 billion. As of July 31, 2006, Aurora master serviced over 1 million loans totaling nearly $181 billion, a 17 percent increase over the prior year. During the year, Aurora experienced significant changes in senior management across the servicing division. In November 2005, Terry Gentry joined the company as EVP Loan Administration, responsible for all areas of servicing. Gentry has more than 30 years of industry experience and upon his arrival reorganized the servicing departments as well as hired two new seasoned managers to oversee the loan administration and default management areas. In addition, an administrative office was created in an effort to more effectively control project management, reporting, system administration and contract administration for the division. Fitch rates residential mortgage primary, master, and special servicers on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being the highest rating. Within some of these rating levels, Fitch further differentiates ratings by plus (+) and minus (-) symbols, as well as the flat rating. For more information on Fitch’s residential servicer rating program, see the Fitch report ‘Residential Mortgage Servicer Ratings,’ dated Nov. 29, 2006, which is available on the Fitch Ratings web site at www.fitchratings.com.
