Fitch Places Accredited's Residential Servicer Rating on Watch Negative

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fitch Ratings has placed Accredited Home Lenders, Inc's (Accredited) residential primary servicer rating of 'RPS3-' for subprime product on Rating Watch Negative. Accredited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co. (LEND).

The Rating Watch reflects the continued pressure on LEND's liquidity position in the increasingly challenged subprime mortgage market. Fitch does not publicly rate the credit and financial strength of LEND. However, a company's financial condition is an important component of Fitch's servicer rating analysis.

On June 4, 2007, LEND announced that it had entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger with an affiliate of Lone Star Fund V (U.S.) L.P. Pursuant to the merger agreement there are certain conditions to be completed before the deal can close, including regulatory approval in several states.

Based on recent discussions regarding operational stability and performance, Accredited's servicing platform continues to perform at a level consistent with Fitch's prior assessment. At this time, Fitch does not anticipate any material disruptions in Accredited's servicing operations. However, Fitch will continue to monitor LEND's financial condition and its impact on Accredited's servicing and operational capabilities and performance.

For more information on the impact of financial condition on Fitch's servicer ratings, please see Fitch's report 'Impact of Financial Condition on U.S. Residential Mortgage Servicer Ratings' dated March 26, 2007, which is available on the Fitch Ratings web site at www.fitchratings.com.

Fitch rates residential mortgage primary, master, and special servicers on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the highest rating. Within some of these rating levels, Fitch further differentiates ratings by plus (+) and minus (-) as well as the flat rating. For more information on Fitch's residential servicer rating program, please see Fitch's report 'Rating U.S. Residential Mortgage Servicers', dated Nov. 29, 2006, which is available on the Fitch Ratings web site at www.fitchratings.com.

Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site.