Bonds

S&P Drops Ratings on $4.6 Billion in 2005 Subprime RMBS 

Standard & Poor’s announced today that it had downgraded 402 classes of U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) backed by first-lien subprime mortgage loans that were issued from the beginning of the first quarter of 2005 through the third quarter of 2005. The downgrades hit a total of $4.6 billion in original par, or 1.45 percent of the $320 billion in first-lien US RMBS rated by agency. S&P also affirmed its ratings on securities representing $252.4 billion original par value of U.S. RMBS backed by first-lien subprime mortgage loans from this same period.