Morningstar Credit Ratings, LLC Assigns MOR RV1 Residential Vendor Ranking to Premium Title in the Real Estate Services Market

PR Newswire

NEW YORK, June 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Morningstar Credit Ratings, LLC today assigned its MOR RV1 residential vendor ranking to Premium Title, a subsidiary of Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (Altisource), for title insurance services. Morningstar's forecast for the ranking is Stable.

Premium Title, based in Atlanta, Georgia, is a national provider of title and settlement services for refinance, reverse, HELOC, purchase and sale (both real estate-owned and conventional), construction and single-family rental transactions. The company's customized solutions can integrate with a number of loan origination systems and business processes to help lower vendor costs and reduce title errors and barriers to closing. Premium Title closes approximately 2,000 REO sales per month and produces over 5,000 preforeclosure property reports (insured and uninsured) per month. Premium Title has 700 personnel dedicated to providing title services. The company is licensed in in 39 states and has tightly integrated title vendors in 11 states.

Altisource, through its subsidiaries, has approximately 8,100 employees located in the United States, India, Uruguay, the Philippines, and Luxembourg. Altisource's extensive and diversified product solutions for the real estate industry provide clients the opportunity to consolidate services with a single full-service vendor.

The Morningstar ranking is based on a variety of factors, including:

Premium Title's pervasive enterprise risk management culture that consists of compliance, internal audits, self-risk assessment protocols, quality assurance, and a robust vendor management oversight group. In addition, the company has an extensive training curriculum that promotes a continuous learning environment along with comprehensive policies and procedures that serve to ensure that employees are performing their responsibilities in accordance with industry best practices.
The company engages a third-party auditing firm to produce a SOC 1 audit report on an annual basis.
Premium Title has excellent protocols to ensure compliance with the myriad of state regulations that govern the title insurance services market as well as underwriter licensing requirements.
Premium Title has successfully obtained the American Land Title Association (ALTA) Best Practices Certification, a designation that recognizes the company for complying with the seven pillars established under the certification requirements, as verified by a third-party accounting firm.
Premium Title benefits from a solid technology environment that includes a title insurance order processing system that provides quality control and accounting functionality. The company has a well-defined project management process, effective network security protocols, and a disaster recovery and business continuity plan that leverages the company's numerous office locations for redundancy.

The company's strategic growth plan is to continue innovating and enhancing closing and title solutions for top and mid-tier mortgage lenders along with deeper expansion into large bulk securitization transactions for the investor services segment.

About Morningstar Credit Ratings, LLC and Morningstar, Inc.
Morningstar Credit Ratings, LLC is a nationally recognized statistical rating organization (NRSRO) offering a wide array of services including new-issue ratings and analysis, operational risk assessments, surveillance services, data, and technology solutions.

Morningstar Credit Ratings, LLC is a subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc. (Nasdaq: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The company offers an extensive line of products and services for individual investors, financial advisors, asset managers, retirement plan providers and sponsors, and institutional investors in the private capital markets. Morningstar provides data and research insights on a wide range of investment offerings, including managed investment products, publicly listed companies, private capital markets, and real-time global market data. Morningstar also offers investment management services through its investment advisory subsidiaries, with more than $200 billion in assets under advisement and management as of March 31, 2017. The company has operations in 27 countries.

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Media Contact: Vanessa Sussman, +1 646 560-4541 or vanessa.sussman@morningstar.com

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