S&P downgrades 226 classes of 2002-2004 Alt-A Residential Mortgage-backed Securities

From Research Recap:

More bad news for holders of securities backed by Alt-A mortgages, which are supposed to be almost as safe as prime loans.

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services today lowered its ratings on 226 classes from 34 residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) transactions backed by U.S. Alternative-A (Alt-A) mortgage loan collateral issued between 2002 and 2004. “We removed 55 of the lowered ratings from CreditWatch with negative implications. We also affirmed our ratings on 235 classes from the 34 downgraded transactions and four additional Alt-A deals. We removed 19 of the affirmed ratings from CreditWatch with negative implication.”>>>MORE