Fed Extends TALF Until Next Year

The Federal Reserve Board has extended the TALF program into next year to see if the special financing facility can finally provide a boost for the commercial mortgage-backed securities market. The Fed noted that the CMBS market is "still impaired" as it extended the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility for legacy CMBS until March 31 and new CMBS until June 30. The TALF program was due to expire at yearend. But several members of Congress and commercial real estate groups have been urging the Fed to extend the program because of the limited availability of financing for maturing CRE loans. In addition, the TALF program for CMBS has gotten off to a slow start and it has only financed the purchase of $670 million in legacy CMBS so far. The Fed is expected to approve the first new CMBS deals using TALF financing on Thursday (Aug. 20).