Green Tree Sees Servicer Ratings Upgraded

Green Tree Servicing, LLC saw its core residential mortgage servicer rating boosted late Thursday by analysts at Fitch Ratings, citing key improvements in the growing servicer’s platform. Fitch said it had upgraded servicing ratings for HLTV and subprime product from ‘RPS3+’ to ‘RPS2-,’ and upgraded the more general special servicer rating at the firm from ‘RSS3+’ to ‘RSS2-.’ The rating agency also assigned a second lien servicer rating of ‘RPS2-,’ as well, as Green Tree has significantly expanded its servicing portfolio this year. On Oct. 17, 2007, Green Tree servicing was acquired by a group led by Centerbridge Partners, L.P. Between October 2007 and July 2008, Green Tree has added $3.9 billion in assets to its mortgage servicing portfolio from various sources, and management indicated to Fitch that the servicer is continuing to look for further growth in the quarters ahead. As of June 30, 2008, Green Tree’s servicing portfolio totaled over 600,000 loans for $20.2 billion, including 22,400 subprime loans for $2.05 billion, 13,000 HLTV loans for $0.32 billion, 36,600 closed-end seconds for $1.02 billion, and 533,000 manufactured housing loans for $16.8 billion. The company’s servicing operations are headquartered in Tempe, AZ, with customer service and bankruptcy located in Rapid City, SD; cash operations, compliance, legal, internal audit, human resources, treasury, investor reporting, and information technology located in St. Paul, MN; and collections located in three servicing centers in Tempe, Rapid City, Fort Worth, TX, and 29 regional offices throughout the U.S. Green Tree continues to improve its servicing operations, Fitch said — and inparticular its default management capabilities. The the agency’s prior review, Green Tree has begun leveraging its legacy manufactured housing regional offices for field visits to increase contact with delinquent borrowers and its in-house recovery staff across all of the mortgage products it services (the company was once a focused MH servicer, but has expanded broadly since it was acquired). Green Tree also enhanced its proprietary servicing system to process option adjustable rate mortgage, home equity line of credit, and interest only loans, and implemented its GT Portfolio Management web portal to provide more detailed information to investors, Fitch said. For more information, visit http://www.fitchratings.com. Write to Paul Jackson at paul.jackson@housingwire.com.