Fitch Affirms GreenPoint Mortgage's 'RPS2-' Resi Servicer Ratings

Business Wire, July 16, 2003

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 16, 2003

Fitch Ratings affirms GreenPoint Mortgage Funding Inc.'s (GreenPoint) residential primary servicer ratings for both Alt-A residential mortgage loans and for home equity and HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit) loans at 'RPS2-'. The affirmation of these ratings reflect GreenPoint's capable loan administration practices, established internal controls, competent default management processes, and effective training programs. The financial strength of its parent, GreenPoint Financial Corp., also supports the servicer ratings.

As of March 31, 2003, GreenPoint's servicing portfolio consisted of approximately 189,200 loans with an unpaid principal balance of $28 billion, of which approximately 35,900 loans representing $1.5 billion were home equity lines of credit, and approximately 49,000 loans representing $10.1 billion were Alt-A loans. Private residential mortgage-backed securitizations comprised 30,000 loans or nearly 16% of the total servicing portfolio.

GreenPoint Mortgage Funding, Inc., headquartered in Novato, California, operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of GreenPoint Bank. The servicing platform has domestic offices in both Columbus, GA and Santa Rosa, CA, with a vendor arrangement for outsourced processes in Bangalore, India since June 2002. GreenPoint Bank and GreenPoint Financial Corp. are both rated 'BBB' by Fitch. Fitch will closely monitor GreenPoint's servicing platform and the performance of its loan portfolio as the servicer progresses through its planned management and technology enhancements and the continued outsourcing of some of its business processes to a well established outsource vendor in India.

Fitch rates residential mortgage primary, master, and special servicers on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the highest rating. Within each of these rating levels, Fitch further differentiates ratings by plus (+) and minus (-) as well as the flat rating. For more information on the review and rating process for servicers, see Fitch Research on 'Residential Mortgage Servicers Ratings', dated Feb. 21, 2003 and available on the Fitch Ratings web site at 'www.fitchratings.com'.