Industry News

I attended a dinner last week with the joint leadership of the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO). Attendees came from the residential mortgage business, the commercial mortgage business and the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA, which owns and manages MISMO). I was invited because I serve as co-chair of the board for the Commercial Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (known as cMISMO).

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Today marks my fourth year writing this blog.

I started CMBS 2.0 to provide an insider’s perspective on how financial reform plays out in the Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities (CMBS) industry. My first post was on September 11, 2008, right before Lehman crashed, and I closely followed the passage of Dodd Frank in 2010. I assumed by now I’d be writing about how the new rules are working, but they they still haven’t been finalized.

From what I’m hearing, the risk retention rules are to be finalized in first quarter 2013, and REG AB changes should be finalized by mid 2013.

So on we go.

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The launch of CMBS.com Pro has been going well. Our new commercial real estate deal management tool, which includes CMBS data, was very well received at the ICSC conference in Las Vegas. We had several people sign up on the spot, and one property owner from the Midwest stated we were his favorite product at the show. The attendance was massive at the show but the Marketplace Mall (where we were) did not get the same traffic as the Leasing Mall. Maybe next year we will change locations. Nonetheless, it was a great venue to launch the new product.

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The first CMBS deals of 2012 have priced well, and interest rates being quoted by the conduit shops are now sub 5 percent for high quality CMBS loans. Investor demand has been strong enough to allow the originators to offer rates that start with a 4.

That makes CMBS more attractive vs. other loan products and supports positive momentum for a successful year. The market is on pace to reach $35 billion — and there is more and more talk of doing substantially better than that.

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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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