Fitch Ratings has taken the following rating actions on three Meritage net interest margin (NIM) notes:
Meritage NIM Notes 2005-1:
--$1.6 million Class N-1 downgraded to 'C/DR6' from 'BB-',
--$1.2 million Class N-2 downgraded to 'C/DR6' from 'B+',
--$2.1 million Class N-3 downgraded to 'C/DR6' from 'B'.
Underlying Transaction: Meritage 2005-1
Meritage NIM Notes 2005-2:
--$1.9 million Class N-1 downgraded to 'BB' from 'A-';
--$3.3 million Class N-2 downgraded to 'B' from 'BBB'.
Underlying Transaction: Meritage 2005-2
Meritage NIM Notes 2005-3:
--$4.2 million Class N-1 downgraded to 'C/DR5' from 'BBB';
--$2.0 million Class N-2 downgraded to 'C/DR6' from 'BB';
--$3.1 million Class N-3 downgraded to 'C/DR6' from 'B+'.
Underlying Transaction: Meritage 2005-3
The rating actions reflect actual pay-down performance of the NIM securities to date compared to initial projections, as well as, changes that Fitch previously made to its subprime loss forecasting assumptions for the underlying transactions. The updated assumptions better capture the deteriorating performance of pools from 2006 and late 2005 with regard to continued poor loan performance and home price weakness. Additional details are available in the following research, also available at www.fitchratings.com
--'U.S. Subprime RMBS/HEL Upgrade/Downgrade Criteria' (June 12, 2007);
--'Downgrade Criteria for Recent Vintage U.S. Subprime RMBS' (August 8, 2007);
--'U.S. Rating Criteria for Net Interest Margin Securitizations: Updated' (February 6, 2007).
All of Fitch's ratings criteria for US subprime RMBS available at www.fitchratings.com/subprime.
Fitch's Distressed Recovery (DR) ratings, introduced in April 2006 across all sectors of structured finance, are designed to estimate recoveries on a forward-looking basis while taking into account the time value of money. For more information on Distressed Recovery ratings, see the full report ('Structured Finance Distressed Recovery Ratings'), which is available on the Fitch Ratings web site at www.fitchratings.com.
Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site.