Morningstar Credit Ratings Affirms its MOR RS2 Residential Mortgage Prime and Nonprime Servicer Rankings and MOR RV3 Residential Vendor Ranking for The Money Source
NEW YORK, Nov. 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Morningstar Credit Ratings, LLC today affirmed its MOR RS2 residential mortgage prime and nonprime servicer rankings for The Money Source Inc. (TMS). Morningstar also affirmed its MOR RV3 residential vendor ranking for TMS as a third-party residential loan subservicer. Morningstar's forecast for all rankings is Positive.
TMS is a national correspondent, retail, and wholesale mortgage lender established in 1997. In 2015, TMS developed a loan-servicing platform that utilizes the LoanSphere MSP servicing system. So far, the platform has boarded and serviced nearly 100,000 loans and has plans to hit one million by 2022. In building its own platform, the company has assembled a highly seasoned management team whose goal is to develop a loan-servicing environment designed to be compliant with local, state, and federal loan-servicing guidelines, regulations, and industry best practices as it executes its ambitious growth plan.
Although TMS has a brief history as a loan servicer, the company has developed comprehensive policies and procedures, a robust training environment, and effective third-party vendor management performance assessment protocols. An enterprisewide risk management approach consists of quality-control testing performed by a third-party firm in conjunction with TMS resources, a robust loan-servicing audit program, internal monitoring and feedback of call center interaction with borrowers, and a self-risk-assessment process to identify process gaps and promote best practices. The company has an effective vendor management oversight program to ensure that third-party vendors are performing in accordance with service-level agreements.
TMS continues to improve and refine its technology environment, strengthen its management team, build out its training programs, and maximize its loan-servicing efficiencies. Since Morningstar's last assessment, TMS has made significant progress in its business as a third-party vendor performing loan subservicing. The company recently signed its first subservicing client with additional clients scheduled for early 2018. As of Nov. 27, 2017, TMS had subserviced 7,072 residential mortgage loans, representing an unpaid principal balance of more than $1 billion.
TMS has an effective technology environment anchored by a loan-servicing technology platform provided by a third party. In the spring of 2017, the company developed Servicing Intelligence Made Easy (SIME), a robust proprietary data warehouse that can query data from its main servicing platform as well as any ancillary systems, providing extensive ad-hoc reporting capabilities for management. Additionally, TMS' data-warehouse technology provides clients with a performance management dashboard as well as standard and ad-hoc reporting for clients to manage their portfolios. The company's two servicing locations—in Meriden, Connecticut and Tempe, Arizona—consist of mirrored servicing functions that provide geographical and operational redundancies in the event of an interruption in business. TMS conducts full disaster-recovery testing on an annual basis.
In 2016, the company launched its residential loan subservicing program that provides private-label subservicing to clients. TMS provides customized invoicing and billing statements, a client relations team dedicated to that client's unique business requirements, and a staffing model that provides ample ramp-up time when onboarding new subserviced loans. The company is an approved subservicer for Ginnie Mae mortgage-servicing rights holders and continues to sign new loan subservicing clients.
As of Oct. 3, 2017, TMS had serviced 97,756 residential mortgage loans, representing an unpaid principal balance of more than $20 billion.
To access Morningstar's operational risk assessments methodology and all published reports, please visit www.morningstarcreditratings.com.
Morningstar rankings, forecasts, and assessments contained in this press release are not assessments of the creditworthiness of an obligor or a security and thus are not credit ratings subject to NRSRO regulations.
About Morningstar Credit Ratings, LLC and Morningstar, Inc.
Morningstar Credit Ratings, LLC is a nationally recognized statistical rating organization (NRSRO) offering a wide array of services including new-issue ratings and analysis, operational risk assessments, surveillance services, data, and technology solutions. Morningstar Credit Ratings, LLC is a subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: MORN).
Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The company offers an extensive line of products and services for individual investors, financial advisors, asset managers, retirement plan providers and sponsors, and institutional investors in the private capital markets. Morningstar provides data and research insights on a wide range of investment offerings, including managed investment products, publicly listed companies, private capital markets, and real-time global market data. Morningstar also offers investment management services through its investment advisory subsidiaries, with more than $220 billion in assets under advisement and management as of Sept. 30, 2017. The company has operations in 27 countries.
Morningstar, Inc. is not an NRSRO and does not issue NRSRO credit ratings.
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