NEW YORK, Dec. 19, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Morningstar
Credit Ratings, LLC today assigned its 'MOR RV1' residential vendor
ranking for ClearCapital.com, Inc. (Clear Capital) as a residential
vendor in the asset valuation market. The forecast for the ranking
is Stable.
The assigned ranking reflects Morningstar's assessment of Clear
Capital's operational infrastructure and client-driven performance
results in its duties as a residential vendor producing asset
valuations. The Stable forecast for the residential vendor ranking
stems from a pervasive risk management culture that incorporates
audit, quality assurance, compliance, and legal oversight across
the enterprise. The company has developed strong vendor selection
criteria and vendor rating standards that effectively measure
vendor performance as reflected in its execution of service-level
agreements with customers. Clear Capital's proprietary technology
provides the company with a highly flexible platform from which to
effectively embed comprehensive quality assurance standards in all
work orders received from vendors. Additionally, the technology
provides a comprehensive rating system for evaluating the quality
of both external vendor work and internal staff. Clear Capital
offers extensive training and continuing education opportunities
for new and tenured employees and has developed comprehensive
policies and procedures to ensure the company consistently adheres
to industry best practices. Clear Capital's flexible business model
and proprietary technology provide the company with a solid
business platform from which to pursue opportunistic market growth
and a diversified business strategy. The assigned ranking is based
on the following factors:
- Robust technology environment: Morningstar believes Clear
Capital has an effective technology architecture and systems
infrastructure that supports its products and services and is fully
scalable. This technology infrastructure provides the necessary
performance management tools critical to monitoring and delivering
performance to clients as outlined in service-level agreements.
Additionally, the company's technology architecture performs
extensive data validation checks on all work orders and provides a
rating system for vendors. Clear Capital has comprehensive project
management protocols in place for developing and prioritizing
technology projects. The company has an effective disaster recovery
and business continuity plan in place, tested annually, that is
based on geographical redundancy between the company's locations in
Truckee and Roseville, California.
- Risk management: Morningstar believes Clear Capital has
implemented an effective risk control environment throughout the
organization by instituting sound internal controls. These controls
include, but are not limited to, effective training programs,
comprehensive procedures, continuous performance monitoring and
review, internal risk assessment methodologies, and control
monitoring. A Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements
No.16, Reporting on Controls at a Service Organization (SOC 1), is
conducted annually by an external firm, in addition to an annual
financial controls audit. An enterprise-wide risk management
program is in place, and the legal and compliance areas provide
guidance on state and federal laws and regulations. As an appraisal
management company, Clear Capital partners with various trade
industry groups and legislative bodies to remain current on
existing and proposed legislation that may affect its business
nationwide.
- Effective training programs: Morningstar's positive opinion of
Clear Capital is based on its effective training regimen for new
and tenured employees that benefits from a blend of internal and
external training solutions. The syllabus offers training in
relevant regulations such as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and the
Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, as well as
product-specific training and technology applications. All courses
require skills testing. A career path program is in place,
consisting of an annual employee review that incorporates an
ongoing development plan. Morningstar believes Clear Capital has
the requisite training infrastructure, staff, and resources
commensurate with the size of its organization.
- Comprehensive policies and procedures: Morningstar believes
Clear Capital has comprehensive policies and procedures that
incorporate workflow-specific processes and descriptive narrative.
The policy and procedure documents are written by the operational
staff using a consistent format and are centrally administered by
the human resources department. The risk management committee
periodically undertakes a formal review of policies and procedures.
Policy and procedure documents are available enterprise-wide on the
company's intranet to ensure consistent practices across the
business platform.
- Solid performance record: Clear Capital is led by a highly
tenured management team with significant and relevant industry
experience. The company is a recognized leader in the industry and
has produced more than 8 million valuations, including appraisals,
broker price opinions, and collateral desktop analysis. Clear
Capital has developed an infrastructure for continuous performance
monitoring and reporting to best execute service-level agreements
with customers. The company effectively utilizes its proprietary
technology to perform extensive data validation and vendor
performance scoring and provide feedback. This process is further
enhanced by a team of quality assurance representatives and
certified appraisers that perform in-depth quality analysis on all
work orders.
The forecast for the ranking is Stable. Morningstar believes
Clear Capital is fully capable of serving as an effective
residential vendor in the asset valuation market for a wide variety
of financial institution clients. The Stable forecast is based on
Morningstar's view that Clear Capital will maintain organizational
stability, providing high-quality service and performance for
clients. Clear Capital's flexible technology environment, risk
management culture, industry-leading performance, and highly
experienced management team should position the company well for
continued growth and market expansion.
To access Morningstar's operational risk assessment methodology
and all published reports, please visit
https://ratingagency.morningstar.com.
About Morningstar Credit Ratings, LLC and Morningstar,
Inc.
Morningstar Credit Ratings, LLC is a Nationally
Recognized Statistical Rating Organization (NRSRO) that specializes
in structured credit research and ratings and offers a wide array
of services including new-issue ratings and analysis, operational
risk assessments, surveillance services, data, and technology
solutions.
Morningstar Credit Ratings' rankings, forecasts, and assessments
contained in this press release are evaluations and opinions of
noncredit related risks and, therefore, are not credit ratings
within the meaning of Section 3 of the Securities Exchange Act of
1934 ("Exchange Act") or credit ratings subject to the Exchange Act
requirements and regulations promulgated thereunder with respect to
credit ratings issued by NRSROs.
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. offers an extensive line of products and
services for individual investors, financial advisors, asset
managers, and retirement plan providers and sponsors. Morningstar
provides data on approximately 479,000 investment offerings,
including stocks, mutual funds, and similar vehicles, along with
real-time global market data on more than 13 million equities,
indexes, futures, options, commodities, and precious metals, in
addition to foreign exchange and Treasury markets. Morningstar also
offers investment management services through its investment
advisory subsidiaries and had approximately $169 billion in assets under advisement and
management as of Sept. 30, 2014. The
company has operations in 27 countries.
Morningstar, Inc. is not an NRSRO, and its credit ratings on
corporate issuers are not NRSRO credit ratings.
©2014 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
MORN-R
Media Contact:
Michelle Weiss, +1 267-960-6014 or
michelle.weiss@morningstar.com
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