SEC Company Response from WELLS FARGO ASSET SECURITIES CORP (CIK 0001011663) — Dec 21, 2005
WELLS FARGO ASSET SECURITIES CORP (CIK 0001011663)
Date: Dec. 21, 2005 · CIK: 0001011663 · Accession: 0000914121-05-002437
AI Filing Summary & Sentiment
File numbers found in text: 333-129159
Referenced dates: November 18, 2005
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[Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP]
December 21, 2005
Jennifer G. Williams, Esq.
Special Counsel
Division of Corporation Finance
United States Securities and Exchange Commission
100 F Street, N.E.
Washington, DC 20549
Re: Wells Fargo Asset Securities Corporation
Registration Statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-129159)
Filed on October 20, 2005
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Dear Ms. Williams:
We are counsel to Wells Fargo Asset Securities Corporation (the "Registrant")
under the above-captioned registration statement (the "Registration Statement").
We have reviewed your letter dated November 18, 2005 (the "Comment Letter")
transmitting comments of the Staff of the Division of Corporation Finance (the
"Staff") of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "Commission") and have
discussed the comments contained therein with various representatives of the
Registrant. The following are the responses of the Registrant to the Staff's
comments. Terms used herein without definition have the meanings given them in
the form of base prospectus (the "Base Prospectus") or the form of prospectus
supplement (the "Prospectus Supplement") contained in Amendment No. 1 to the
Registration Statement ("Amendment No. 1"), which has been filed today with the
Commission through the EDGAR system. Enclosed herewith are four courtesy copy of
Amendment No. 1, two of which have been marked to show changes implemented in
response to the requests of the Staff in the Comment Letter.
For your convenience, the Staff's comments are repeated in italics below,
followed by the Participant's responses. References to page numbers in Amendment
No. 1 are to the marked version.
1. Please confirm that the depositor or any issuing entity previously
established, directly or indirectly, by the depositor or any affiliate
of the depositor have been current with Exchange Act reporting during
the last twelve months with respect to asset-backed
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Jennifer G. Williams, Esq.
December 21, 2005
securities involving the same asset class. Please refer to General
Instruction I.A.4. of Form S-3. Also, please provide us with the CIK codes
for any affiliate of the depositor that has offered a class of
asset-backed securities involving the same asset class as this offering.
The Registrant confirms that the depositor and each issuing entity
previously established directly or indirectly by the depositor or any
affiliate or the depositor have been current with Exchange Act reporting
during the last twelve months with respect to asset-backed securities
involving the same asset class. No affiliate of the depositor has offered
a class of asset-backed securities involving the same asset class as this
offering.
2. Please include a separately captioned section and disclose any legal
proceedings pending against the sponsor, seller, servicer, depositor,
trustees, issuing entity or other transaction parties that would be
material to investors, if applicable. Refer to Item 1117 of Regulation AB.
The Registrant confirms its obligation to describe any legal proceedings
pending against the sponsor, the depositor or any of the other entities
described in Item 1117 of Regulation AB that would be material to security
holders. However, because, as of the date of this letter, there are no
material legal proceedings pending of the type referred to in Item 1117 in
Regulation AB, and because Item 1117 does not require affirmative
disclosure of the absence of any such material legal proceedings, the
Registrant does not believe that a separately captioned legal proceedings
section is required at this time.
3. Please confirm that you plan to file the finalized agreements, including
the exhibits to these agreements, as an exhibit to the registrant
statement or under cover of Form 8-K and incorporated by reference into
the registration statement at the time of each takedown. Refer to 1100(f)
of Regulation AB.
The Registrant confirms that it plans to file finalized agreements,
including exhibits, as an exhibit to the Registration Statement or under
cover of Form 8-K for incorporation by reference into the Registration
Statement at the time of each takedown. The Registrant will file each such
Form 8-K not later than fifteen days following the closing date related to
each takedown.
4. Please confirm that the pool will include no non-performing loans, and
less than a 20% concentration level of delinquent loans.
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Jennifer G. Williams, Esq.
December 21, 2005
The Registrant confirms that asset pools will include no nonperforming
loans and less than a 20% concentration level of delinquent loans.
5. Please briefly define here or in the summary the use of the term
"non-relocation" to describe the type of mortgage loans in the asset pool.
The Staff's requested changes have been made at page S-8 of the Prospectus
Supplement.
6. Please provide an appropriate cross-reference in the first footnote on
this page.
The Staff's requested change has been made at page S-4 of the Prospectus
Supplement.
7. We note you refer to footnote 7 for the pass-through rate on your Class
A-1, A-2, A-5 and A-6 Certificates. However, we cannot locate disclosure
explaining the purpose of this footnote. Please provide this disclosure or
remove your reference to this footnote.
Footnote 7 has been revised to clarify that it describes the formulas
applicable to each class of floating rate certificates.
8. It appears that loans in the asset pool will be originated by other
mortgage loan originators. Please include bracketed language to disclose
that you will provide the information required for all other mortgage loan
originators that will originate 20% or more of the pool assets and that
the mortgage loan originators that will originate 10% or more of the pool
assets will be identified. Refer to Item 1110(a) and (b) of Regulation AB.
Because the transaction described in the Prospectus Supplement is
illustrative and does not relate to any particular originator other than
Wells Fargo Bank, the Registrant has not included any bracketed disclosure
about any other hypothetical originator, since whether any such originator
will exceed the thresholds in Item 1110 of Regulation AB, and the
particulars of the disclosure that would be required about a particular
originator under Item 1110(b), are not currently known to the Registrant.
However, the Registrant confirms its understanding that other mortgage
loan originators who originate 10% or more of the pool assets will need to
be identified in the applicable Prospectus Supplement and that information
described in Item 1110(b) of Regulation AB will be required about mortgage
originators who originate 20% of more of the pool assets. In that regard,
the Registrant directs the Staff's attention to the bracketed language on
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Jennifer G. Williams, Esq.
December 21, 2005
page S-39 of the Prospectus Supplement, in which the Registrant has
indicated its understanding of that obligation.
9. Please expand your disclosure to briefly explain the circumstances for the
optional purchases of certain mortgage loans from the pool. For example,
we note on page 77 in the base prospectus that the depositor or the master
servicer may repurchase any mortgage loan which is in default during one
or more thirty-day periods. Also, briefly disclose the "certain
circumstances" when substitutions may be made for certain mortgage loans.
Refer to Item 1103(a)(6) of Regulation AB.
The Staff's requested change has been made at pages S-8 - S-9 of the
Prospectus Supplement.
10. In this regard, we note on page S-41 that the depositor may substitute
for any reason a new mortgage loan for any mortgage loan in the trust
estate for three months following the closing date. However, it does
not appear your transaction meets the limited exceptions to the
discrete pool requirement under Item 1101(c)(1) of Regulation AB.
Refer to Item 1101(c)(3) of Regulation AB. Please provide an analysis
to explain how the general substitution of mortgage loans would meet
the definition of an asset-backed security under Regulation AB.
The Registrant has elected to remove the referenced substitution right
from its transactions under the Registration Statement and has,
accordingly, deleted the referenced language.
11. Please expand your disclosure to briefly clarify why the weighted average
life of a "companion certificate" is particularly sensitive to principal
prepayments on the mortgage loans.
The Staff's requested change has been made of page S-13 of the Prospectus
Supplement.
12. Please provide us with a copy of the static pool information you intend to
present on your Internet web site. Also, please consider providing a
graphic presentation of the information as this will enable investors to
grasp information more quickly and see patterns visually or explain to us
why a graphical presentation would not aid the understanding of the static
pool information to investors.
Enclosed with this letter is a copy of the intended format for static pool
disclosure
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Jennifer G. Williams, Esq.
December 21, 2005
which will appear on the Registrant's designated website when it becomes
available. The Registrant does not currently plan to provide a graphic
presentation of static pool data.
13. Please include a graphical illustration or flow chart that would
complement the narrative description of the pool distribution amount
allocation on page S-24 and distribution on the Class A Certificates on
page S-32 or advise why a graphical illustration among the various classes
of certificates would not aid the understanding of the flow of funds to a
potential investor. Refer to Item 1113(a)(2) of Regulation AB.
In the Registrant's judgment, the narrative descriptions of the pool
distribution amount allocation and of the principal distributions on the
Class A Certificates present such information in a manner familiar to and
understood by investors in mortgage-backed securities and in the
sufficient detail to enable such investors to perform their own modeling
activities with respect to those securities. In the Registrant's judgment,
supplemental graphical information or flow charts would merely provide
redundant disclosure and would do so in a less precise manner. The
Registrant does not believe that this will aid the understanding of
potential investors and is unaware of any expressed desire for such a
presentation by investors in its securities.
14. Please explain why the mortgage loans in the trust estate are "expected to
be" secured by first liens rather than "will be" secured by first liens.
The disclosure on page S-39 of the Prospectus Supplement has been revised
to clarify that the mortgage loans "will be" secured by first liens.
15. The first paragraph on page S-40 provides that the first table in Appendix
A will set forth certain characteristics of the Mortgage Loans, Premium
Mortgage Loans and the Discount Mortgage Loans. The first table of
Appendix A, however, does not present separately the various pool
characteristics for each of the Premium Mortgage Loans and Discount
Mortgage Loans. Please add these characteristics to the "Selected Mortgage
Loan Data" on page A-1.
The column headings for the Premium Mortgage Loans and Discount Mortgage
Loans, which were inadvertently omitted from Appendix A, have been
reinserted.
16. We note your statement that "in certain instances, exceptions to the
Underwriting Standards may have been granted." Please add bracketed
language to disclose the type of exceptions to underwriting standards
affecting any of the mortgage loans
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Jennifer G. Williams, Esq.
December 21, 2005
included in the asset pool and quantify the percentage of these mortgage
loans to the extent material.
The Sponsor's normal mortgage loan underwriting practice is to grant
exceptions to individual underwriting criteria if, in the judgment of the
originator's underwriting personnel, sufficient compensating factors
exist. The Registrant does not believe that the nature or amount of
exceptions made to the underwriting guidelines pursuant to which the
mortgage loans in any trust were originated will be material to investors
in the related securities. However, to the extent that a transaction
contains mortgage loans for which exceptions to underwriting criteria were
granted and the Registrant concludes that such exceptions would be
material to investors in the related securities, such exceptions to the
underwriting criteria will be disclosed in the applicable prospectus
supplement. Because exceptions may be made to any individual underwriting
criteria, the Registrant cannot provide any further information about the
nature of specific exceptions which may be present in any given
transaction at this time.
17. We note your disclosure on page S-49. However, it does not appear that you
have included a table itemizing all the fees and expenses disclosure
required by Item 1113(c) of Regulation AB. Please revise to disclose all
of the information called for by Item 1113(c) in a tabular format. Also,
please add this section to the table of contents.
The Registrant has revised the presentation of fee information on page
S-49 of the Prospectus Supplement to more clearly indicate that it is the
tabular presentation required by Item 1113(c) of Regulation AB and to
include information about successor compensation and other expenses
reimbursable to the transaction parties out of cash flows on the pool
assets.
18. Please include the underwriter compensation information called for in Item
508 of Regulation S-K.
The Staff's requested change has been made at page S-53 of the Prospectus
Supplement.
19. It appears that the underwriter and any dealers that participate in the
distribution of the offered certificates are underwriters under the
Securities Act. As such, please delete to remove the phrase "may be deemed
to be" from this section here and in the base prospectus.
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Jennifer G. Williams, Esq.
December 21, 2005
The Staff's requested change has been made at page S-53 of the Prospectus
Supplement and at page 128 of the Base Prospectus.
20. Refer to footnote 1 to the table for "Selected Mortgage Loan Data" on page
A-1. Please quantify the percentage of the mortgage loans for which FICO
Scores are not available to the extent material.
The Registrant will add the reque