In all, the New York Fed has settled approximately $12.3 billion in loan requests for legacy CMBS since the securities were added to the TALF program last June, according to data from the bank. The March tally of settled requests was the second lowest since the program began, and also marked the widest monthly gap by far—$402 million—between requested and settled amounts. By contrast, the gaps between requests and settlements for the January and February rounds were slightly more than $120 million per month.
On its website, the New York Fed notes that it reserves the right to reject loan requests. The securities that were rejected fell short of either "the explicit requirements specified for legacy CMBS in the TALF program terms and conditions" or Fed's risk assessment of the legacy CMBS, "including an assessment of whether the stress value of the legacy CMBS exceeded the requested loan amount," according to the bank.
To date, the TALF program has produced only one request for new CMBS, a $72-million transaction in the November 2009 round. The March round drew no takers. However, that lone issuance did serve a purpose, according to the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council.
"This first CMBS new issue was followed by two additional private 'single-borrower' CMBS that priced at year-end 2009 without government support from TALF," according to a CRE Finance Council policy paper earlier this month. "This progress is welcome and suggests the future of the program should be clearly revealed as a 'fallback' and not a 'catalyst.'" The council says that the program "should be tailored to support a transition to a sustainable private market," one that would support the re-emergence of conduit lending.
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Paul Bubny
Paul Bubny is managing editor of Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. He has been reporting on business since 1988 and on commercial real estate since 2007. He is based at ALM Real Estate Media Group's offices in New York City.
