Fed Gets No Requests for TALF Loans to Purchase CMBS

By Scott Lanman

June 16 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve received no requests from investors for loans to buy new commercial mortgage-backed securities under an emergency program aimed at reducing borrowing costs and reviving U.S. economic growth.

The New York Fed announced the absence of loan requests on its Web site today, the first monthly deadline for investors to apply for loans to buy new CMBS through the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF. No issuers have publicly announced debt that’s eligible for the program.

New York Fed President William Dudley set expectations low, saying in a June 4 speech that he didn’t anticipate any activity today because the securitization process “takes quite a while to ramp up.” He asked his audience not to “take that as a mark of the success of the CMBS effort, please.”

The stakes of TALF aid for CMBS extend beyond the markets for office and retail space. Worsening problems in the commercial mortgage market may accelerate the drop in property values, increase defaults and weaken banks’ finances, Dudley said in the speech.

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