Big Bambu
At the CRE Finance Council convention in New York this week, an exuberant band played at a networking cocktail party, economists reported upbeat data and issuers and originators boldly committed to start pushing money out the door. That was the good news. The bad news: the band members were moonlighting investment bankers and lawyers, the servicers didn’t share the same optimism and the uncertainty of regulatory and accounting reform still looms.
Comments
Categories: Conference Updates, Corporate, Economic Recovery and Government Opportunities, Real Estate, Structured Finance and Securitization
The Line Reports from the CRE Finance Council Conference: Distressed Asset Investors "Back on Offense"
Panelists from Brookfield Real Estate Financial Partners, Eastdil Secured, The Blackstone Group, Oaktree Capital Management and PCCP surveyed the state of the distressed asset market and the motivations of buyers and sellers.
Comments
Categories: Conference Updates, Corporate, Economic Recovery and Government Opportunities, Real Estate, Structured Finance and Securitization
Hot Topics in CMBS Loan Servicing (and Some Thoughts on Document Drafting for CMBS 2.0)
With this post I've decided to take a discussion from the MBA Servicing Conference last week ("Hot Topics in CMBS," which included panelists from CWCapital, KeyBank, Principal, Moody's and Situs and focused on current servicing problems associated with CMBS loans) and examine loan documentation, particularly what CMBS 2.0 has to correct.
Comments
Categories: Conference Updates, Corporate, Economic Recovery and Government Opportunities, Real Estate, Structured Finance and Securitization
The Line Reports from the MBA Servicing Conference: Multifamily Servicers Report Increased Watchlist Loans, Prepare for Wave of Maturing Loans
Panelists from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Wells Fargo and M&T Realty Capital concurred that, with fewer refinancing options available to borrowers near-term, maturity defaults pose a looming problem that will initially spike in 2013. The number of stressed loans is mounting as well, pushing more loans to watchlist status and requiring greater servicer resources.
Comments
Categories: Conference Updates, Corporate, Economic Recovery and Government Opportunities, Real Estate, Structured Finance and Securitization
The Line Reports from the MBA Servicing Conference: Servicer Liability Issues
The Line is on the road this week at the Mortgage Banker's Association Servicing and Technology Conference. "Live from New York," so to speak.
Comments
Categories: Conference Updates, Corporate, Economic Recovery and Government Opportunities, Real Estate, Structured Finance and Securitization
The Line Reports from the CMSA: Part IV - Servicers Face A New Reality
A panel of representatives from CMBS and portfolio lending, including the primary, master and special servicing functions, met during the CMSA Conference last week. An unusually candid discussion followed that focused on the business challenges that servicers face, and the effects of the current credit environment on their operations.
The business model for servicers has been turned on its head.
Comments
Categories: Conference Updates, Corporate, Economic Recovery and Government Opportunities, Real Estate, Structured Finance and Securitization
The Line Reports from the CMSA: Part III - The Senior Bondholders Push-Back
A panel of investors from the top of the capital stack—money managers, hedge funds, and other long-term investors—introduced the first of several CMSA forums aimed at specific constituencies. A spirit of activism underlay the group's coalescing in the first place. As one panelist put it: "In the past we were passive and didn't get our hands dirty. Now we recognize we have to interact with rating agencies and regulators, as well as others in the industry."
Comments
Categories: Conference Updates, Corporate, Economic Recovery and Government Opportunities, Real Estate, Structured Finance and Securitization
The Line Reports from the CMSA: Part II - Fat Cats and Second Shoes?
On the heels of the special election in Massachusetts the night before, it was an interesting, if not provocative, time for leading Republican and Democratic Congressmen to address the CMSA Conference. Congressmen Eric Cantor (R-Virginia), House Minority Whip, and Paul Kanjorski (D-Pennsylvania), member of the House Financial Services Committee and Chairman of the Capital Markets Subcommittee, took turns providing their perspective on both broader political events and specific issues affecting commercial real estate finance.
As expected, Rep. Cantor was elated by the Brown victory, and hailed the result as providing a check-and-balance on one party rule. He continued:
Comments
Categories: Conference Updates, Corporate, Economic Recovery and Government Opportunities, Real Estate, Structured Finance and Securitization
The Line Reports from the CMSA: Part I - "Foam on the Runway" and the Reform of Capitalism
In a blunt and candid assessment of financial regulatory reform, Senator Bob Corker (R- Tennessee), ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, addressed the Commercial Mortgage Securities Association's Annual Investors' Conference in Washington, DC yesterday on a range of issues affecting commercial real estate. Sen. Corker has become the lead negotiator for the Republicans on financial regulatory reform, and described a bipartisan group of four Democrats and four Republicans trying to forge a policy consensus on systemic risk and resolution authority (the "too big to fail" issue).
Comments
Categories: Conference Updates, Corporate, Economic Recovery and Government Opportunities, Real Estate, Structured Finance and Securitization
The Line Reports from The Trigild Conference - Part IV: End Game Thinking from the Servicer’s Perspective
To the Trigild panel of servicers considering lender exit strategies, the scale of the problems confronting commercial real estate is daunting. A composite of servicing statistics is symptomatic:
- Special servicing portfolios are 10 times greater now than at year-end 2007
- For one servicer, the average specially serviced asset size jumped from roughly $4 million to over $14 million
- Early defaults are unprecedented
- All types of defaults are showing up: monetary, non-monetary and imminent
- While all property types have seen default spikes, retail seems most significantly impacted in the last 9 months
Comments
Categories: Conference Updates, Corporate, Economic Recovery and Government Opportunities, Real Estate, Structured Finance and Securitization