Over 800 industry participants have descended on Washington D.C. for the CREFC annual conference. With CREFC’s expanded focus on more than just securitization, we are now hearing from a more diverse set of voices at the conference. The conference kicked off this morning with the PSA Task Force’s discussion of the pooling and servicing agreement simplification (not standardization) project. The discussion focused on the PSA Task Force’s tremendous efforts to develop a uniform set of guiding principles and best practices for the servicing provisions in pooling and servicing agreements, while avoiding the internal hurdles posed by a standard form of PSA. Outside of securitization, the portfolio lending members continue to drive the first mortgage lending market and are now talking about chasing yield in the sub debt market. Throughout the day, we’ve heard a lot of talk about continued Euro uncertainty and a fragile US recovery – especially in light of events in Spain over the weekend. We look forward to engaging on all of these issues and their ongoing effect on the CRE market and seeing many of you at our dinner tonight at the top of the Hay Adams Hotel.
By: Matthew Ginsburg and Stewart McQueen
