Fitch Ratings last week issued its first presale report for subprime RMBS. The rating agency plans to issue the reports for subprime deals initially, and may eventually draw them up for Alt-A and prime deals, said Glenn Costello, managing director and co-head of RMBS at Fitch.
"We've been wanting to do them with U.S. RMBS for a while, but the challenge is there is such a large deal flow, and the timing for the marketing process is just so tight - there was a real logistical challenge," Costello said.
Fitch automated much of the tasks underlying presale report construction, freeing analysts to focus on key aspects of each deal. Prior to automation, creating a presale report would have taken several days, Costello said. Fitch did not add staff for the effort.
The first report was a hit with investors, many of whom are hungry for as much information about U.S. subprime collateral they can get their hands on. Of particular interest was the deal comparison chart offered in the presale, which allows investors to see collateral differences that may exist among an issuer's deals.
The reports also contain deal summary information, collateral analysis and base-case expected loss comparisons using the rating agency's ResiLogic model.
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