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

The industry trade group that controls the reporting standards for CMBS reporting, the CRE Finance Council, released the consensus version of the new reporting requirements for CMBS 2.0. The trade group spent over a year with investors, issuers and servicers trying to reach consensus on best practices and disclosure levels.

Keep reading »

We in the Commercial Mortgaging Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (C-MISMO) have been trying to come up with our strategic goals for 2011. As a starting point to determine these goals, we are using the results of a 2010 survey the MBA commissioned by the Vertical Industry Standards and Technology Adoption (VISTA) project. The survey basically asked industry participants if Commercial MISMO standards were being adopted and, if not, why not.

Keep reading »

Last week’s MBA CREF conference was more subdued than January’s CMBS-centric CREFC conference. While the mood was cautiously optimistic — and definitely better than last year — the MBA CREF conference lacked the jubilation expressed at CREFC.

Keep reading »

I attended the annual CREFC CMBS Investor conference in Washington DC last week, where the mood was definitely upbeat. So positive, in fact, that some people were already warning about slipping underwriting standards!

Keep reading »

I was re-elected to the Commercial Board of Governors of MISMO for another two-year term, so I will remain active in MISMO at least through 2013. MISMO, which stands for the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organizations (www.mismo.org), is a standard-making body run by MERS and owned by the MBA.

I have been active in MISMO because I believe commercial real estate deals should have a standard XML data set that is comprehensive enough to understand and value the deal.

Keep reading »