S&P to Downgrade Coming to Alt-A Mortgage Backed Securities

Market Watch is reporting tonight that Standard & Poors is considering downgrades to 484 mortgage backed securities made up of primarily Alt-A mortgage loans.  Alt-A mortgages have credit characteristics slightly lower than prime mortgages but are often underwritten with no income documentation and with exotic terms such as negative amortization and interest only features.  They were a popular avenue for investment property financing as  well. From Market Watch: Standard & Poor's said on Friday that it may cut ratings on 484 classes of residential mortgage securities backed by so-called Alt-A home loans. The influential agency also warned that it could downgrade ratings on 63 classes of net interest margin securities, a type of derivative that's tied to the A