CMBS 2.0   :  By Jim Flaherty, President & CEO of CMBS.com

The annual CREFC conference was last week in Miami and, while attendance was slightly up, the mood was way worse than last year. 2011 started great (with momentum from a strong second half of 2010), but the summer spread widening caused losses and basically shut down the second half of 2011.

Going into 2012, there is very little momentum. Originations are starting at a standstill as opposed to a running start. However, it was still a fun few days, and the return to Miami Beach from Washington, DC was a welcomed change.

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The public comments on the SEC re-proposed rules for issuing asset backed securities including CMBS, known as Reg AB II, were due this week. The SEC received comments from 23 different companies and trade groups, including one from me.

See all responses : See my response

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The Mortgage Bankers Association has announced it will take back management of MISMO from MERS Corp effective December 1, 2011.

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Every year on September 11, I join most people in the nation and reflect on the terror attacks of that day. I was in New York Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2011 — and I witnessed the destruction firsthand. I was blessed that the meeting I had scheduled for 8:30 a.m. in Tower One at the Windows on the World restaurant, where no one survived, was changed to a 10:30 a.m. meeting in Suite 2243. Of course, that meeting never happened.

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The CMBS deal recently priced by Deutsche Bank and UBS was the first deal since the market crash to include publicly registered bonds (all other post crash securitizations issued private bonds using the 144A Rule).

This is a big deal. Most people agree that for the CMBS market to truly recover, we have to issue public bonds — because so many potential investors are limited to only buying publically registered bonds.

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