Standard & Poor's Fixed Income Risk Management Services (FIRMS), an analytics and research unit separate from S&P's ratings business, and Experian, the global information services company, today announced a strategic alliance to improve transparency in the securitized loan market.
S&P and Experian Capital Markets will collaborate on integrating Experian's extensive credit data and analytics with FIRMS securitized loan data and models, with a particular focus on the individual loans that are packaged in mortgage-backed securities.
The alliance will provide investors worldwide with more detailed information on the underlying loans in US mortgage-backed securities by combining Experian's consumer credit data and analytics and S&P's loan level data products. In the first step of the partnership Experian Capital Markets will connect consumer credit information and attributes to S&P's US RMBS Edition loan level data feed product.
"Securitized loan investors need to be able to drill down to the foundation of each individual loan in their portfolios to gain a truly comprehensive picture of their risk exposures," said David Goldstein, managing director, Fixed Income Risk Management Services, Standard & Poor's. "Through our partnership with Experian, we will be able to provide investors with an amazing level of granularity on the fundamental risks in each loan and the ability to benchmark their portfolios against this data."
"The goal of our collaboration is to provide investors with the transparency needed to value structured finance products and to make more informed buy and sell decisions," said Ethan Klemperer, senior vice president and general manager, Experian Capital Markets. "Our partnership with Standard & Poor's is a critical step in improving market efficiencies needed to restore liquidity and investor confidence."