Category Archives: CREFC

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The CRE CLO is Coming Back Soon:  Who You Gonna Believe, Me or Your Lying Eyes?

I’ve written extensively about the CRE CLO technology for a long time and why it is the best leverage technology across securitization markets.  With the sponsor typically holding up to 20% of the bottom of the capital stack, it represents the best alignment of interests between sponsor and investor.  For the sponsor, it provides unique, … Continue Reading

Birds Do It, Bees Do It, Even Educated Fleas Do It.  Should The CRE Securitization Industry Advertise? [1]

If the wisdom of crowds has any validity (and there’s no real evidence that it’s any worse than the pontifical huffings of the chattering class), then there’s hope for 2023.  Optimism did itself proud at CREFC.  We’ll see if that optimism is recapitulated at SFVegas and at the MBA CREF meeting coming up in the … Continue Reading

CREFC Capital Markets Conference Recap

On October 26, 2022, Dechert partners Laura Swihart and Stewart McQueen attended the CREFC Capital Markets Conference in New York City. Stewart gave opening remarks and Laura moderated a panel on the current housing market and its intersection with multi-family, single-family and build-to-rent properties. Laura and Stewart sat down with Law Clerks Jared Goldstein and … Continue Reading

It’s Not Just a Flesh Wound

I’ve been back from CREFC’s and RER’s annual meetings for a week or so, mulling what those confabs meant.  There’s been plenty of reportage on the events, the panels, the parties, the to-ing and fro-ing, but what I want to do is step back and reflect on the gestalt; the subtext, the hidden codex.  What … Continue Reading

Ahhh… Miami! Sun, Sand and Commercial Real Estate

CREFC January 2022 – it was supposed to be the comeback conference. Everyone was pumped to spend a few days down south, getting together with their safely vaccinated clients, colleagues and friends. Meetings, mingling and mild mayhem were on the Miami menu. But days before the conference, the dreaded COVID, or more specifically Omicron, continued … Continue Reading

Life in the Time of Conferences: CREFC, CREF and SFA

With apologies to Mr. Marquez for repurposing the title of his haunting book, it’s conference season here in CRE and ABS securitization-land and therefore a time to reflect (more Marquez) on the risks that the world will become more disorderly, or whether we will progress gently from a perfectly fine 2019 to 2020.  We attended … Continue Reading

Beany & CECL

Beany & Cecil was a cartoon.  The Current Expected Credit Loss accounting rules, better known as CECL, which the FASB is insisting will go into effect at the beginning of next year for publicly traded banks and lenders and a year later for all other GAAP reporting entities is not.  Now, heaven forfend that I … Continue Reading

CREFC Annual Conference

Last week, the CREFC Annual Conference was back in its traditional New York venue, which benefitted not only the Manhattan hospitality market’s RevPAR but also provided for an exciting and lively location in Times Square.  Dechert’s bash on Monday evening was extremely well attended and the guests were treated to passed hors d’oeuvres and the … Continue Reading

2017 CREFC Annual Conference: Into the Heart of the Swamp

CREFC held its Annual Conference last week in Washington D.C. Given the current politically charged climate, 2017 felt like a very appropriate time to move the Annual Conference from its traditional home in New York to Washington. Although attendance was down slightly from last year, over 1000 people attended the conference. Dechert hosted a reception … Continue Reading

The Dilemma of the Really Annoyed Borrower

Since my earliest days in the CRE capital markets biz, there has always been a drumbeat of grumbling from the borrower community about the annoying complexity, expense and delay of having one’s loan serviced in a capital markets transaction.  It’s been going on forever.  Like noise, like listening to Brits complaining about their weather; it’s … Continue Reading

Reading the Financial Tea Leaves: CREFC Market Outlook Survey 2017

CREFC has surveyed some of its attendees—all major participants in the commercial real estate finance industry—at the 2017 CRE Finance Council January Conference in Miami.  CREFC’s 2017 market outlook survey confirmed what we observed at the conference this year, that for the most part survey respondents were cautiously optimistic in the face of the Trump Administration, … Continue Reading

A Trip Through the Labyrinth – The Regulatory Man in Full

And now to return to our commentary a few weeks back about the stultifying impact of ill-thought through rules and regulations (at best) (Brexit has intervened).  This is our Regulatory State which broadly attempted to pick winners and losers and modify market behavior, to get an engineered outcome by using the blunderbuss of proscriptive rules … Continue Reading

CREFC Annual Conference 2016: Headwinds or Head First Into the Wall?

The slow start to 2016 did not dampen the enthusiasm at CREFC’s Annual Conference, held last week in New York City.  The conference saw record attendance, with standing-room-only crowds at virtually every panel.  As with the Industry Leaders Conference in January, the hot topics on people’s minds were risk retention (and the rest of the … Continue Reading

The Strange Death of the Modern Financial System

With apologies to George Dangerfield, who published The Strange Death of Liberal England in 1935 chronicling the collapse of the British Liberal Party prior to World War I, I’m borrowing his title for this commentary.  Okay, bear with me.  Regrettably, we may be witnessing something happening to our banking system which is somewhat reminiscent of … Continue Reading

CREFC Commercial Real Estate Finance Summit (West) 2016

Earlier this month CREFC held its “Commercial Real Estate Finance Summit – West” in Santa Monica, CA, which – while not nearly as large as the annual conference in New York – was still very well attended (roughly 175 attendees, an increase over last year). Given the sentiment earlier this year in Miami, the fluctuation … Continue Reading

Flash: Congress Fixes the CMBS Risk Retention Problem (Just Kidding)

Last week, the House Committee on Financial Services reported out the Preserving Access to CRE Capital Act of 2016 (the “bill”) in a remarkably bipartisan sort of way (paving the way for: “Well, yes, I did vote for it, but then I voted against it.”).  The bill, which was drafted and backed by CREFC, would … Continue Reading

Risk Retention and the Regulatory State: What It Means to “The Folks” in 2016 and Beyond

We may be approaching a tipping point where the burden of the new federal regulatory state, purportedly designed to make our economy stronger by making the banking system safer, will begin to demonstrably become a cure that’s worse than the disease. To my eye, much of the new regulatory apparatus feels like political theatre designed … Continue Reading

CREFC and MBA/CREF: A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Alternate Universes

That whole alternate universe thing, the conceit of so many sci-fi novels, is clearly not merely the product of fevered minds.  It’s real.  Or, at least it seemed awfully real after having been at the CREFC meeting in Miami and the MBA/CREF meeting in Orlando during the past month.… Continue Reading
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