OREANDA-NEWS. June 30, 2015. Fitch Ratings has updated its criteria for analysing securities backed by Greek residential mortgage loans. The update does not have an impact on any existing ratings. The criteria addendum replaces the report of the same name dated 31 March 2015.

The assumptions are used for rating new and existing RMBS transactions as well as mortgage covered bond programmes. In addition the market value decline assumptions are applicable to the ratings of SME CLOs secured by residential real estate.

The only changes relate to the foreclosure time, which was increased to eight years from five years. Fitch has revised this assumption to account for falling foreclosure activity as banks opt for out-of-court recovery procedures.

The values for a number of existing quantitative adjustments for non-standard loan characteristics, previously defined on a case-by-case basis, have been specified in the criteria report.

More information is available in the report, 'Criteria Addendum: Greece - Residential Mortgage Assumptions', which is available at www.fitchratings.com or by clicking the link above.