Welcome to The S-Curve
Now you will be able to receive the latest announcements, product updates, and our insights on the mortgage market in real time.
The name of the blog, the S-Curve, is a reflection of our logo and the central feature of our prepayment model. S-curves are seen in nature in many phenomenon, from population growth to prepayment and default models. Our first S-curve, in the early 1990s, used the arctangent function, then piece-wise linear functions, and evolved over time to be more complex and vary by FICO, loan size and LTV. This evolution encapsulates both the timeless nature of fundamental relationships and constant innovation to describe them better over time.
We hope you find the information useful and we look forward to your feedback.
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AD&Conversations: CIS Pilot ProjectPodcastTune in to our fourth episode of AD&Conversations with Kevin Lin and Eknath Belbase, our product lead for our Climate model. In this episode, they discuss the new Climate Impact Suite (CIS) pilot project, and Belbase outlines several challenges the team is navigating, including:
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Helping users become familiar with climate-related casualty data
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Identifying the most suitable scenarios to use
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Determining the best way to visualize the results
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AD&Conversations: CIS Pilot ProjectPodcastTune in to our fourth episode of AD&Conversations with Kevin Lin and Eknath Belbase, our product lead for our Climate model. In this episode, they discuss the new Climate Impact Suite (CIS) pilot project, and Belbase outlines several challenges the team is navigating, including:
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Helping users become familiar with climate-related casualty data
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Identifying the most suitable scenarios to use
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Determining the best way to visualize the results
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Andrew Davidson Guest Speaker on Equifax's Market Pulse PodcastPodcast
Andrew Davidson was invited to speak on Equifax's Market Pulse Podcast titled, "Driving Efficiency and Resilience in the Mortgage Industry" live at the 2025 MBA Annual Convention in Las Vegas.
Andy explains how variations in data files can distort risk assessment, creating a dual risk for lenders: extending credit to borrowers more likely to default while overcharging customers whose risk is overstated.
Click here to learn more.
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Policy Perspectives - Housing Market Dynamics and Mortgage RiskThoughtsOur latest Policy Perspective written by Richard Cooperstein offers an analysis of the U.S. housing and mortgage finance markets, focusing on key trends and forward-looking risks. While housing markets are not fully efficient, they do respond to economic imbalances which create opportunities and vulnerabilities. This article explores how demographic shifts, credit access, interest rates, and climate risks shape both housing demand and supply.
Key findings include:
- Weak demand fundamentals, especially among new homeowners
- Easing supply shortages and slowing price growth
- Elevated risk of broader housing price declines amid rising recession concerns
- Notable exposure of higher-coupon mortgages and servicing rights to interest rate and credit risks
Cooperstein also assess the resilience of mortgage-related assets under current and projected conditions.
Click here to read now!
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AD&Conversations: Exploring KineticsPodcastJoin Kevin Lin in a conversation with Richard Cooperstein as they dive into Kinetics, AD&Co's modular platform designed to deliver the full power of our models and analytics; with the flexibility to license only the tools you need. In this interview, they unpack insights from Eric Limjoco's recent Pipeline article, "Driving Sharper Insights with the Kinetics Reporting Engine," and share a sneak peek into what's coming with the Kinetics 2.0 release.
As a seasoned internal power user, Richard shares why this upgrade is an innovative enhancement for delivering comprehensive solutions across the mortgage space.
The S-Curve Archives
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ThoughtsWith the increasing volumes of Synthetic Risk Transfer (SRT) and Credit Risk Transfer (CRT) along with the discussion of BASEL III, we thought it would be useful to re-issue our comment letter to FHFA on the capital treatment of Credit Risk Transfer.
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PodcastRecently, senior credit modeler, Daniel Swanson had the pleasure of speaking with Rob Kessel from the Panoramic Capital Academy podcast titled, “Modeler’s Perspective on Prepayment Modeling.” T
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ThoughtsThe earliest paper we found examining the impact of climate risks on house prices was from 2017, which found a relationship between elevation/sea level rise and house price differences.[1]
We built our climate-conditioned HPA model in 2022 based on the idea that an increase in insurance costs would impact house prices (something we had not studied yet) in the same way that an increase of the same size in mortgage rates would impact house prices (something that we were quite familiar with).
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NewsAndrew Davidson & Co., Inc (AD&Co) is pleased to announce a new alliance with Mortgage Capital Trading, Inc. (MCT), a leading provider of mortgage capital market solutions.
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EventsAt Andrew Davidson & Co., Inc. (AD&Co), our dedication to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) has been a cornerstone of our values. We established our DEI Committee in 2020, following the tragic murder of George Floyd. Despite the evolving landscape, including the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision impacting affirmative action in higher education, we remain steadfast in our commitment to fostering an inclusive environment that strengthens both our employees and the company.
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PodcastTune in to Eknath Belbase's interview with Michelle Stepien Breier & Richard Cooperstein as they discuss their latest Pipeline article “Improving Mortgage Data: A Data Exchange for the Mortgage Ecosystem.” -
EventsAndy and I recently attended AmeriCatalyst ‘Going to Extremes’ Climate, Housing and Finance Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C., a fantastic conference on all things related to climate risk and the housing ecosystem. While going over all the great speakers and broad expertise represented there would take a novella, I want to connect a few key ideas discussed there to our ongoing efforts in this area.
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EventsAt the recent AmeriCatalyst ‘Going to Extremes’ Climate, Housing and Finance Leadership Summit, I presented a session on how risks related to weather-related losses impact the housing finance system.
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ProductsAndrew Davidson & Co., Inc (AD&Co) is thrilled to announce an expanding relationship with a Third-Party Vendor! AD&Co enjoys working with countless analytical providers to offer our clients seamless solutions and we would like to welcome Milliman M-PIRe™ to the team!
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EventsThe Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco directed the Urban Institute to develop innovative and actionable ideas to close the gap between white and black homeownership rates, which is as wide today as before the Fair Housing Act, enacted 60 years ago. Homeownership is crucial to a fairer society because working and middle-class families most commonly create inter-generational wealth by owning homes with amortizing mortgages.