Standard & Poor’s lowered ratings on 145 classes from 72 U.S. RMBS transactions that are insured by MBIA Insurance Corp. following the bond insurer’s Feb. 28, downgrade.
S&P downgraded MBIA to 'CCC' from 'B' and the outlook on the company remains negative, according to a report the ratings agency published last Friday.
The underlying collateral for the transactions insured by MBIA consists of Alt-A, prime jumbo, subprime, closed-end second-lien (CES), and home equity line of credit (HELOC) securities.
Among the downgrades are also two re-REMIC securities that are not MBIA-insured but have exposure because the underlying class is MBIA-insured and the insured payments are passed through to the re-REMIC securities. These two classes do not benefit from additional credit enhancement.
“Based on our criteria, the rating on a bond-insured class reflects the higher of the rating on the respective bond insurer or the rating on the class without the benefit of the bond insurance,” explained S&P analysts in the report.