CMBS

While questions about the rights of CMBS investors in bankruptcy cases and other risks persist, there are offsetting trends that continue to drive the securitized commercial mortgage market toward a comeback, according to Mark Edelstein, chairman of Morrison & Foerster's real estate finance group.

DBRS is requesting comments on the proposed legal criteria for European structured finance deals.

Three years after the onset of the financial crisis, securitization market players are now focusing more on finding different restructuring options for ABS deals, according to the Henderson Global Investors' structured products team.

While the call for the creation of a catastrophic insurance fund for MBS has been gaining ground in recent weeks, two leading Federal Reserve Board economists are poised to push the concept one step further, suggesting a backstop for all ABS.

European CMBS loan defaults have continued to increase with 10 loans that defaulted in Q210, bringing the total at the end of the quarter to 8.7%.

Starwood Vacation Ownership (SVO) has just priced a $280,000 deal backed by vacation ownership loans related to 17 SVO properties that are located in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Orlando, FL., and Scottsdale, Arizona, among others.

A bankruptcy court approved General Growth Properties’ (GGP) disclosure statement, bringing the shopping mall owner closer to emerging from bankruptcy.

CMBS has been seeing some activity lately. For instance, Starwood Property Trust announced yesterday that it came to market with a CMBS deal that generated non-recourse match funded financing for the firm with an effective cost of funds of around 3.5%.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is conducting an insider trading investigation of General Growth Partners (GGP). The bankrupt shopping mall owner also disclosed that it is receiving equity investment from The Blackstone Group.

Even with reports of JPMorgan Chase planning to sell $1 billion of CMBS — the biggest deal this year — issuance in the sector is still far below 2007 levels.