Fitch Upgrades Financial Freedom's Reverse Mortgage Servicer Rating

2008-08-13 23:51:03 -

- Fitch Ratings has upgraded Financial Freedom Senior Funding Corporation's (Financial Freedom) residential primary specialty-reverse mortgage servicer rating as follows:

--Primary specialty-reverse servicer rating to 'RPS3' from 'RPS5'

The rating is placed on Rating Watch Evolving.

On July 11, 2008, following its closure of IndyMac Bank, FSB the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) chartered IndyMac Federal Bank,

FSB (IndyMac Federal Bank) and appointed the FDIC as conservator. Financial Freedom is a wholly owned subsidiary of IndyMac Federal Bank. The rating actions reflect the operational capabilities of the existing servicing platform, and the financial backing of the FDIC. The Rating Watch Evolving indicates that a further rating action of a downgrade, upgrade or affirmation may occur.

IndyMac Federal Bank is under the guidance of a new Board of Directors appointed by the FDIC. However, all key managers responsible for the ongoing management of the servicing platform have remained intact with no planned changes to the servicing standards that were previously in place. Additionally, the financial backing of the FDIC will enable Financial Freedom to maintain its current servicing operations and financial obligations while the FDIC pursues its objective of returning the bank to the private sector.

Fitch plans to perform a full operational review of the servicing platform in the fourth quarter, 2008 and will continue to monitor the ongoing operational performance of the company's servicing platform. .

For more information on the impact of financial condition on Fitch's servicer ratings, please see Fitch's report 'Impact of Financial Condition on U.S. Residential Mortgage Servicer Ratings' dated March 26, 2007, which is available on the Fitch Ratings web site at www.fitchratings.com.

Fitch rates residential mortgage primary, master, and special servicers on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the highest rating. Within some of these rating levels, Fitch further differentiates ratings by plus (+) and minus (-) as well as the flat rating. For more information on Fitch's residential servicer rating program, please see Fitch's report 'Rating U.S. Residential Mortgage Servicers', dated Nov. 29, 2006, which is available on the Fitch Ratings web site at www.fitchratings.com.

Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site.

Fitch Ratings
Stephanie Whited, +1-562-481-1368 (California)
Mary Kelsch, +1-212-908-0563 (New York)
Sandro Scenga, +1-212-908-0278
(Media Relations, New York)