On April 14, Nareit, together with five other groups representing commercial real estate (CRE) interests, submitted a letter to the leadership of the Federal Reserve Board, the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, urging that the Term Asset Backed Securities Facility (TALF) program, which was reinstated last month, be broadened.
Nareit and its industry colleagues urged that the TALF be expanded to include a wider range of investment grade commercial real estate debt instruments, including, importantly, legacy and new issuance non-agency CMBS, investment grade GSE Credit Risk Transfer (CRT) securities, and CRE collateralized loan obligations (CLOs). Noting that AAA collateral is under the least price pressure at present, the group contends that the TALF would be far more effective if it accepted a broader range of investment grade instruments as collateral, below the triple-A rating.
(Contact: Victoria Rostow at vrostow@nareit.com)