In the latest Fed Survey on Bank Lending Practices, US banks say they tightened commercial real estate lending in Q1, despite anecdotal evidence that says otherwise.
The tightening comes after regulators’ late 2015 condemnation of lending practices at US banks saying that standards look similar to just before the 2008 crisis—especially with high-risk, leveraged loans.
Banks also increased their originations and decreased securitizations of commercial real estate loans over the past six months in the face of turbulence in the CMBS markets, GlobeSt reports. CMBS is also facing a looming maturity wall—i.e. the wave of securitized loans that will need refinancing over the next six months.
The tightening of standards may have contributed to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s decision to increase the multifamily lending capacity of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, getting more loans in the marketplace. [GlobeSt]
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