TransUnion and First American CoreLogic Introduce Greater Loan-Level Transparency Into Mortgage-backed Securities

Chicago and Santa Ana, Calif. – To improve visibility into the hidden risk of many of the mortgage assets currently plaguing the financial system and capital markets, TransUnion has developed a new solution called TransUnion Consumer Risk Indicators.  This solution, developed in cooperation with First American CoreLogic, a member of The First American Corporation family of companies (NYSE: FAF), makes available previously missing information for Mortgage Secondary Market risk analysis and modeling.  

The TransUnion Consumer Risk Indicators for RMBS (Residential Mortgage-backed Securities) and Whole Loans bring comprehensive, current and historical loan-level consumer credit information to the mortgage industry for in-depth risk analysis.  This includes hard-to-find information such as complete adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) exposure (beyond the loan in question) and the consumer’s capacity to pay. This data is already proven to predict risk and consumer behavior for numerous lending products such as mortgages, auto loans and credit cards, but has previously been unavailable for mortgage-backed securities.  

“Billions of dollars in mortgage securities were traded without visibility into the risk of the underlying borrowers of the loans backing the securities, focusing instead on pool-level home price appreciation (HPA) and initial loan-to-value (LTV),” said Jeff Hellinga, president of TransUnion’s U.S. Information Services division.  “This was sufficient as long as property values continued to rise.  But now, with the collapse of the housing market, direct insight into the actual risk of the underlying borrowers is critical.  This is particularly relevant given the recent creation of the Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP), which is designed to draw private capital into the market to facilitate price discovery of legacy assets and the expansion of other government programs, such as the Trouble Assets Relief Program (TARP) and the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF).”

“Sophisticated traders and investors are always looking for an information edge and these solutions provide that, enabling early adopters to capitalize on the superior insights generated,” said George Livermore, chief executive officer of First American CoreLogic. “In pre-release reviews with select hedge funds and investment banks, we have received very positive feedback on the RMBS and Whole Loan solution set.”  

The TransUnion Consumer Risk Indicators for RMBS incorporates sophisticated proprietary matching algorithms jointly developed between First American CoreLogic and TransUnion. These algorithms link individual loans within non-agency mortgage-backed securities to the consumer credit information of the specific borrowers of those loans.  Additionally, these algorithms create high rates of matching and high confidence levels in those matches due to the methodology and data used to create them.  This information illuminates the credit risk a borrower represents (beyond just the loan data available in a given security) and is superior to other types of consumer credit information generally available (e.g. geographically aggregated data for individual loans and consumer credit information from the origination date).  It also allows investors to directly tie the newly available consumer credit information to the First American CoreLogic LoanPerformance Securities Database, which spans subprime, Alt-A, option ARM, and jumbo securities and represents over $1.8 trillion in loan-level data or 96 percent of all non-agency securities.

This solution will help industry participants develop better valuations based on the composition and risk of consumers in individual mortgage pools.  For example, two pools of loans with similar “aggregate” characteristics (e.g., loan size, original consumer risk and LTV and geographic mix) could have significantly different expected default rates – and, therefore, different cash flows and valuations – based on current and trended individual consumer credit characteristics (e.g., credit utilization and total debt outstanding).  While results will vary from portfolio to portfolio, initial TransUnion analysis showed an improvement in default predictions of more than 15 percent over current predictive methodologies.  

TransUnion’s Consumer Risk Indicators for Whole Loans also provides new information previously unavailable for risk assessment of Whole Loan bids and portfolio monitoring.  While updated consumer reports are commonly used in this area, TransUnion’s solution provides a time-series of data specifically proven to predict risk.  “This time-series is more predictive than the updated consumer reports currently used in the industry,” added Hellinga. “We’ve also developed it to be easily incorporated into the existing bid process.”  

For more information on TransUnion Consumer Risk Indicators, contact Joe Mellman at jmellma@transunion.com.  

About TransUnion
As a global leader in credit and information management, TransUnion creates advantages for millions of people around the world by gathering, analyzing and delivering information. For businesses, TransUnion helps improve efficiency, manage risk, reduce costs and increase revenue by delivering comprehensive data and advanced analytics and decisioning. For consumers, TransUnion provides the tools, resources and education to help manage their credit health and achieve their financial goals. Through these and other efforts, TransUnion is working to build stronger economies worldwide. Founded in 1968 and headquartered in Chicago, TransUnion employs associates in more than 25 countries on five continents. www.transunion.com

About First American CoreLogic
First American CoreLogic, a member of The First American Corporation (NYSE:FAF) family of companies, is the largest provider in the U.S. of real estate, property, ownership, fraud, mortgage, and mortgage securities data—and the advanced analytics that use them—for the assessment of real estate sales, collateral valuation, home price trends, mortgage originations, mortgage- and asset-based securities pricing, foreclosures, delinquencies, and asset dispositions. Our market-specific data covers 98 percent of all U.S. ZIP codes and 3,059 counties in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, representing 99 percent of the U.S. population, 97 percent of all properties (140 million), more than 50 million active mortgages, and $1.8 trillion in loan-level, non-agency mortgage securities. First American CoreLogic’s products and services enable customers to manage credit and mortgage risk, protect against fraud, acquire and retain customers, mitigate loss, decrease mortgage-transaction cycle times, value properties accurately, determine real estate trends, and project future market performance. For more information about First American CoreLogic, please visit www.facorelogic.com.

About First American
The First American Corporation (NYSE: FAF) is a FORTUNE 500® company that traces its history to 1889. With revenues of approximately $6.2 billion in 2008, it is America’s largest provider of business information. First American combines advanced analytics with its vast data resources to supply businesses and consumers with valuable information products to support the major economic events of people’s lives, such as getting a job, renting an apartment, buying a car or house, securing a mortgage and opening or buying a business. The First American Family of Companies, many of which command leading market share positions in their respective industries, operate within five primary business segments, including: Title Insurance and Services, Specialty Insurance, Information and Outsourcing Solutions, Data and Analytic Solutions, and Risk Mitigation and Business Solutions. More information about the company and an archive of its press releases can be found at www.firstam.com.