Fitch Upgrades BNY Mellon’s Residential Servicer

For the Bank of New York Mellon (BK), the news just keeps getting better and better. Fitch Ratings on Thursday upgraded BNY Mellon’s US residential servicer rating to “RMS1” from “RMS1” minus. It rates servicers on a scale from one to five, with one raking the highest. The upgrade comes just days after the Federal Reserve Board announced the termination of an enforcement action taken in 2006 against the Bank of New York, which merged with Mellon Financial in 2007 to form the company as it stands today. The BNY Mellon master servicer, which received the upgrade, is involved in overseeing the primary servicing functions for private and public mortgage-backed securities. As of March 31 of this year, BNY Mellon was master servicing almost 95,000 loans totaling $19bn, according to Fitch. BNY Mellon’s servicing portfolio contains $3.8bn subprime, $6.7bn prime, $4.4bn Alt-A, $103.3m reverse and $3.3bn conventional conforming and FHA/VA mortgages. “Fitch believes BNY Mellon’s master servicing platform has the capacity and infrastructure to maintain and increase its master servicing, while pursuing its growth initiatives,” the rating agency said in a press release. “Fitch will monitor BNY Mellon’s ability to maintain oversight of its primary servicers in a high default environment.” Write to Diana Golobay. Disclosure: The author held no relevant investment positions when this story was published. Indirect holdings may exist via mutual fund investments.