S&P’s FIRMS, Veros Partner to Provide Loan-Level RMBS Data

Standard & Poor’s Fixed Income Risk Management Services (FIRMS), an analytics and research unit separate from S&P’s ratings business, and Veros Real Estate Solutions, a leading provider of model driven valuations on real property, partnered to provide the market with property valuation information specific to loans underlying residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS). The combination of S&P’s RMBS loan-level data and analytics with Veros’ property valuation data sets should provide a greater depth of loan-level data to the non-agency RMBS market. Through the partnership, investors will have direct access to S&P loan-level information as well as a wide range of collateral valuation data from Veros including current property value estimates, combined loan-to-value ratios and home price forecasts. “The goal of this alliance is to provide RMBS investors worldwide greater clarity, transparency, and analytical capabilities when assessing the risk of their US RMBS holdings and their collateral” said David Goldstein, managing director at FIRMS. “This alliance is one more step toward improving the disclosure of information on collateral underlying RMBS, and refining the quality and integrity of information available to investors.” Goldstein added: “The first stage in this strategic alliance will be to offer Veros loan level property information along with Standard & Poor’s Global Data Solutions — U.S. RMBS Edition.” Write to Diana Golobay.