Fitch Ratings on Thursday cut its credit ratings on Santa Ana-based First American Corp., noting significant deterioration in the company’s capital during the housing and mortgage downturn.
Fitch downgraded and placed a negative rating watch on a number of key ratings for the title insurance and information services company.
Among the downgrades was First American’s issuer default rating, which now is listed as “BBB”. That’s two notches above a junk rating.
The rating company said the moves were driven by a “significant deterioration in First American’s pro forma capital adequacy.”
First American lost $3.1 million last year, thanks to the slowing mortgage and housing industry and higher levels of title insurance claims.
Shares of the company were unaffected by the news during Thursday’s trading. The company counts a market value of about $3.4 billion.
