OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings has affirmed Bayview Loan Servicing, LLC's (BLS) U. S. residential special and small balance commercial servicer ratings as follows:

--U. S. Residential Special Servicer Rating at 'RSS2+'; Outlook Stable;

--U. S. Small Balance Commercial Primary Servicer Rating at 'SBPS2+'; Outlook Stable;

--U. S. Small Balance Commercial Special Servicer Rating at 'SBSS2+'; Outlook Stable.

The ratings affirmation and Stable Outlook reflect BLS' experience in the servicing of high risk residential and small balance commercial mortgage loans, its effective default management technology, and its enhanced loan conversion systems and procedures.

The ratings also take into consideration the servicer's effectiveness in executing on its growth and diversification of its servicing platform to include both agency performing and non-performing loans, and an increase in its subservicing and component servicing capabilities.

During this review period, BLS established its Tucson, AZ office, which will be primarily focused on customer relation and asset management. The servicer also indicated that the new operation will help to fulfill its growth objectives while allowing it to take advantage of the difference in times zones between its east coast and west facilities. In addition, BLS further strengthened its internal control process through the hiring of an experienced manager for its quality assurance group and also completed several enhancements to its review, monitoring and quality control repository and remediation processes and procedures.

The servicer also completed several enhancements to its telephony and web systems that increased customer self-serve functionalities and improved customer service and collections call metrics. In customer service, average speed to answer (ASA) improved to 12.6 seconds from 28.4 seconds with abandonment rate of 1.7% from 4.1%. Collections' ASA slightly deteriorated to 14.6 from 14.5, but the abandonment rate improved to 1.8% from 4.4% over the 12-month review period.

BLS provides full-service residential-mortgage, small balance commercial and commercial loan special servicing from its main location in Coral Gables, FL and operations in Ft. Lauderdale and Miami, FL. The servicer also maintains offices in Ft. Washington, PA; Hurst, TX; and Tucson, AZ.

Fitch does not publicly rate the credit and financial strength of BLS or its parent, Bayview Asset Management, LLC (BAM). However, Fitch's financial institutions group reviewed BLS' financial statements to provide an internal assessment, as a company's financial condition is a component of Fitch's servicer rating analysis.

BLS is the servicing arm of BAM, which was created in October 2008 with Blackstone Capital Partners, an affiliate of The Blackstone Group, holding a minority ownership interest. The parent is a privately held fund management business involved in mortgage acquisition and securitization.

BLS utilizes shared staff and systems for its residential mortgage-backed security and small balance commercial operations, including client/customer web based and telephony technology. The servicing platforms also utilize shared services for its special loans, cash management, escrow administration and foreclosure action responsibilities.

As of March 31, 2016, BLS serviced 115,862 residential mortgage loans with an unpaid principal balance of $22.8 billion. This is further broken down as follows: private RMBS 46,522 loans totaling $8.6 billion, third-party servicing 32,152 loans totaling $8.9 billion, other portfolio of 35,064 loans totaling $4.8 billion and 2,124 agency loans totaling $391 million. In addition, the servicer primary serviced 4,986 small balance commercial loans totaling $1.4 billion and special serviced 1,407 small balance commercial loans totaling $470 million