OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings has affirmed Italfondiario S.p.A's. Italian Residential and Commercial Mortgage Special Servicer Ratings at 'RSS1-' and 'CSS1-', respectively. The agency has also affirmed Italfondiario's Italian Residential and Commercial Primary Servicer Ratings at 'RPS2+' and 'CPS2', respectively.

The affirmations reflect Italfondiario's continued ability to maintain high performance standards and good recovery rates on both residential and commercial non-performing loans. The servicer has a centralised asset management and loan administration function and effective monitoring and management of external resources that are used for local market knowledge.

The ratings reflect the expertise available to the servicer from within the Italfondiario group. Italfondiario RE supports property management activities, repossession stock management and valuations. Gextra, a collection agency specialised in small ticket loans, supports the collection of unsecured debt. Italfondiario Business Information Services provides the servicer with an extensive database for address checks, guarantor search, and monitoring of RE values, which Fitch has not seen at other rated Italian servicers.

The differentiation between the ratings reflects Italfondiario's focus on non-performing loans, which represent the majority of the loans under management. The number of performing commercial loans currently under management is limited.

We consider Italfondiario's financial condition to be stable, with direct minority ownership by Intesa Sanpaolo (BBB+/Stable/F2) and indirect support from Fortress Investment Group LLC (BBB/Stable/F2).

At end-September 2015 Italfondiario's primary servicing portfolio had a gross book value (GBV) of EUR1.55bn and comprised 14,536 loans. The secured special servicing portfolio had a GBV of EUR15.46bn and comprised 155,324 loans. Italfondiario also serviced 155,324 unsecured loans, with a GBV of EUR24.9bn.

Italfondiario is the second-largest Fitch-rated Italian servicer by total portfolio size, with a GBV of EUR43.1bn as at end-December 2015, which continues to increase year on year (2013: GBV of EUR35.4bn). The portfolios under management contain a wide range of loan and asset types, across a variety of clients.

Fitch employed its global and Italian servicer rating criteria in analysing the servicer's operations and financial condition, with the former including a comparison against similar Italian servicers as part of the review process.