Standard and Poor’s affirmed an “Above Average” rating of Celink, a privately owned reverse mortgage servicer and said the outlook is stable.  The agency considers Celink’s financial position to be ‘Sufficient’ and has knowledgeable and experienced management team, which continues to grow.

“Celink has continued to successfully hire, develop, train, and retain a staff to proficiently service reverse mortgage loans,” said the agency.

The company developed a proprietary computer system with IBM to manage its reverse mortgage portfolio, which S&P believes is an effective system for servicing reverse mortgages.

“We believe management continues to build and enhance its proprietary servicing system for reverse mortgages,” said S&P.  “In our view, this system, along with effective management, has facilitated the company’s continued expansion of its reverse-mortgage servicing platform while maintaining industry standards, which we consider satisfactory.”

According to S&P, Celink remains the fourth-largest servicer of HUD-insured home equity conversion mortgage (HECM) loans and is the largest independent servicer of private-label HECM loans.

Additionally, in 2009, Celink became an approved Ginnie Mae HECM Mortgage Backed Security (HMBS) participation agent and subcontract servicer. The company is now reporting to and subservicing 54 active HMBS pools with over 16,000 participations.