OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings has affirmed the following the U.S. residential mortgage servicer ratings on RoundPoint Mortgage Servicing Corporation (RPMS):

--U.S. residential primary servicer rating for subprime product affirmed at 'RPS3+',
--U.S. residential special servicer rating affirmed at 'RSS3+',

The Rating Outlooks have been revised to Stable from Negative.

The rating affirmations are based on RPMS's experienced senior management team, the effective transition in the executive management positions, its enhanced risk management control environment, good staffing and retention programs, and the continued support of its parent, RoundPoint Financial Group, Inc. (RPFG). RPMS is a wholly owned subsidiary of RPGF, which is a part of the Tavistock Group, an international private investment organization founded more than 38 years ago. RPMS began operations in 2007 primarily as a special servicer.

The ratings also take into consideration RPMS's enterprise risk management practices. Fitch believes that RPMS has strengthened its compliance management processes through increased staffing and the ongoing mandatory regulatory courses. The servicer was fully compliant with its 2015 Regulation AB reporting.

Fitch has revised the servicer's Outlook to Stable from Negative based on RMPS progress in its restructuring. The servicer has transitioned to operating as a stand-alone business entity in late 2014. In addition, during the period under review, the executive positions with the parent company were converted to RPMS's positions and Kevin Brungardt and Mark Zeidman assumed the CEO and CFO positions, respectively. Kevin Brungardt also assumed the responsibilities of the prior president of the servicing operations. Brad Johnson remains the chief operating officer of RPMS. The servicer has also added a chief risk officer and a SVP of business development to its senior management team.

As of March 31, 2016, RPMS serviced 338,997 loans totaling $64.5 billion. This represents a 74% increase in loan count over the past year. The current portfolio is comprised of approximately 323,000 agency loans totaling $62.3 billion, 3,400 non-agency RMBS loans totaling $515 Million and, 13,087 loans serviced for others totaling $1.7 billion.

During this review period, RPMS maintained its growth objectives of expanding its agency portfolio through its agreements with several GSE approved originators/sellers of mortgage servicing rights (MSRs). In addition, the servicer established its subservicing and private-label functionalities and began offering these services in Dec. 2009 August and February 2016, respectively.

Also in Oct. 2014, RPMS's sister company RoundPoint Mortgage Company (RPMC), terminated its operation as an originator of residential mortgage loans. RPMC previously provided refinancing programs and acted as a conduit for flow servicing for RPMS. Fitch does not believe that RPMC's exit will have a material impact on RPMS's servicing operation.

RPMS's servicing operations are headquartered in Charlotte, NC, with an additional site in Dallas, TX. The servicer utilizes offshore providers located in the Philippines and India to augment its customer-facing and non-customer facing functions, respectively. No function is 100% offshored and staffing is available onshore to manage the offshore functions if necessary.