In Brief: Duff & Phelps Contests Fed Study on Scoring

A credit rating agency that evaluates mortgage securitizations is taking issue with recent assertions in a Federal Reserve Board study.

Mortgage scoring will not lead to lower profits for securitizers, as the study contended, or compel lenders to sell only poorer quality loans to Wall Street, according to Duff & Phelps Credit Rating Co.

The New York rating agency was responding to a study released last month by two Federal Reserve economists. They examined how mortgage scoring, a relatively new practice for evaluating residential loans, can affect the business of turning loans into securities and selling them to investors.

The economists stand by their conclusions, which were based on an analysis of the mortgage market and credit risks, a Fed spokesman said. But Duff & Phelps said the study inaccurately assumed that lenders can keep scoring data confidential and that securitizers cannot adjust pricing to consider various risks.

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