Rushmore’s Rating Surges on Servicing Practices

Recently, Rushmore Loan Management Services (Rushmore) achieved an SQ assessment of SQ3+ from Moody’s Investor Service. Moody’s rating is a result of the servicer’s above average collection abilities, loss mitigation results, and foreclosure timelines.

Moody’s noted that Rushmore enhanced its collection abilities by improving its overall customer experience. Rushmore separated its customer service and collections call center groups in order to better focus on the customer and implemented workforce management software to improve call center efficiency, Moody's analysis of the servicer noted.

Rushmore’s prime loss mitigation abilities were considered above average as well. This was due in part to the enhancements made to the company's loss mitigation system during the review period.

Rushmore’s special servicing foreclosure and REO timeline were also given a good rating by Moody's, due to its improved pre-foreclosure process, which features auto document retrieval functions, which Moody’s notes may shorten foreclosure timelines.

Additionally, the ratings agency upgraded Rushmore’s servicing stability component assessment from below average to average. Investment in technology as well as an experienced management team, and a strong method of monitoring performance all contributed to an overall stronger servicing segment, according to Moody's analysis.

Rushmore is an originator, servicer, and special servicer of mortgage loans with offices in Irvine, California; Dallas, Texas; and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Rushmore’s residential mortgage service portfolio contained 166,925 loans with an unpaid principal balance of around $29.5 billion as of December 2017.

Rushmore’s previous SQ assessment, on August 15, 2016, resulted in an SQ3 rating as a special servicer. The “+” in Rushmore’s current rating indicates positive relative servicing quality within a particular category.

Moody's SQ assessments represent its view of a servicer's ability to prevent or mitigate asset pool losses across changing markets. The assessment scale ranges from SQ1 (strong) to SQ5 (weak). Where appropriate, a "+" or "-" modifier will be appended to the relevant assessment to indicate a servicer's relative servicing quality within a particular category.