Banks’ Commercial Real Estate Lending Under Fire

US Regulators Call Out Lenders Over Low Standards
The three main US banking regulators, the Federal Reserve, FDIC and OCC, say they plan to clean up sketchy lending practices—which are running rampant, just like before the 2008 crisis. Real estate values have surged since 2010, and competing banks have dropped lending standards to get their piece of the loan action, Bloomberg reports. The OCC called out low-standard lending last week—Comptroller Thomas Curry says banks are chucking sound underwriting, risk management and loan-loss provisioning in their bid for cash and expansion.

Read more at: https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/economy/us-regulators-go-after-lending-practices-53901?utm_source=CopyShare&utm_medium=Browser

Shadow lenders push deeper into risky commercial real estate

Seven years after the financial crisis, private funds in the U.S. are extending their push into traditional banking.

So-called shadow lenders — asset managers that operate outside the banking industry’s regulatory oversight — have been making an increasing number of leveraged loans to midsize businesses.

 Now their involvement is growing in commercial real estate, a market that scorched traditional lenders when it blew up after the 2008 financial crisis.
Read entire article in Seattle Times here.