Hudson City Bancorp, the nation’s third largest thrift, said today that its mortgage operations were recognized in a recent study as among the least risky in the nation. Citing a study by SMR Research Corporation, the thrift said it was ranked in the top one percent among large lenders assessed for mortgage quality. From the press statement:

SMR used a risk factor weighting system to calculate an “Overall Risk Score”. SMR’s study identified a mortgage lender as “an average credit risk” by designating the lender with a score of 1,000. A score below 1,000 indicates a lender is a lower credit risk than the national average and a score higher than 1,000 indicates a greater risk. The scores of mortgage lenders nationally ranged from a high credit risk ranking of 2,704 to a low credit risk ranking of 243. Hudson City received a score of 302 …

I’ve checked with SMR’s Web site and the study is not publicly available, and doesn’t appear to have been made available to the press for comment and coverage. Here’s the prospectus for the study.