Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) has recently announced that 39 single-family mortgage servicers achieved Tier One Platinum or Tier One Gold performance rankings for superior investor reporting and default management during 2006. Freddie Mac also inducted 15 servicers into its Tier One Hall of Fame for achieving Tier One status for four consecutive years. Freddie Mac is one of the nation’s largest investors in residential mortgages.

For the second consecutive year, Freddie Mac’s list of Tier One servicers includes a credit union. Hoosier Hills Credit Union in Bedford, Indiana received a Tier One Gold ranking, making it the fourth credit union to ever achieve Tier One status.

Freddie Mac ranks its servicers against monthly performance benchmarks for investor reporting, minimizing credit losses, and helping delinquent borrowers avoid foreclosure. Tier One Platinum rankings are given to larger servicers for attaining at least two quarters of Tier One (superior) performance in a year, while Gold servicers are smaller lenders who achieve a Tier One rating in Investor Reporting for two quarters in a calendar year, a Tier One rating in Default Management based on an averaged annual calculation, and maintain on average at least one seriously delinquent loan per month.

Both Tier One Platinum and Tier One Gold servicers receive a range of financial and professional rewards plus national recognition. Servicers who sustain Tier One Gold and/or Tier One Platinum status for four consecutive years with no material foreclosure timeline penalties are inducted into Freddie Mac’s annual Hall of Fame and receive additional incentives.

Altogether the Tier One recipients serviced approximately 76 percent of Freddie Mac’s 10.4-million loan portfolio in 2006.

2006 Tier One Platinum Servicers
The 2006 Tier One Platinum recipients are: Arvest Mortgage Company; Bank of America Consumer Real Estate; Bank of Oklahoma, N.A.; Chase Home Lending; CitiMortgage, Inc.; Colonial Savings, F.A.; Countrywide Home Loans, Inc.; Doral Financial Corporation; EverHome Mortgage Company; Fidelity Bank; First Federal Savings Bank (Rochester, IN); First Horizon Home Loan Corporation; Flagstar Bank, FSB; GMAC Mortgage; HSBC Mortgage Corporation (USA); IndyMac Bank, FSB; M&T Bank; National City Mortgage Company; PHH Mortgage Corporation; Provident Funding Associates; Regions Mortgage; Sovereign Bank; SunTrust Mortgage, Inc.; Taylor, Bean and Whitaker Mortgage Corp.; U.S. Bank Home Mortgage; Wachovia Mortgage Corporation; WaMu; and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.

2006 Tier One Gold Servicers
The 2006 Tier One Gold Servicers include: AMCORE Bank, N.A.; Busey Bank; Chemical Bank; HomeStar Bank; Hoosier Hills Credit Union; Johnson Bank; Liberty Savings Bank, FSB; R-G Crown Bank, FSB; Sidney Federal Savings and Loan Association; The Farmers Bank; and TIB – The Independent Bankers Bank.

2006 Hall of Fame Inductees
The 2006 Hall of Fame inductees for both Tier One Platinum and Gold servicers include AMCORE Bank, N.A.; Bank of America Consumer Real Estate; Chase Home Lending; Colonial Savings, F.A.; Countrywide Home Loans, Inc.; Doral Financial Corporation; First Horizon Home Loan Corporation; HSBC Mortgage Corporation (USA), M&T Bank; National City Mortgage Company; PHH Mortgage Corporation, Sovereign Bank; SunTrust Mortgage, Inc.; U.S. Bank Home Mortgage; and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.

Freddie Mac is a stockholder-owned company established by Congress in 1970 to support homeownership and rental housing. Freddie Mac fulfills its mission by purchasing residential mortgages and mortgage-related securities, which it finances primarily by issuing mortgage-related securities and debt instruments in the capital markets. Over the years, Freddie Mac has made home possible for one in six homebuyers and more than four million renters in America. http://www.freddiemac.com/