Fitch: Recoveries on Liquidated CMBS Hit Plateau

The recovery rate on securitized commercial mortgage loans that were liquidated during the second quarter “suffered a fairly sizeable setback” while the overall volume of specially serviced CMBS loans is gradually shrinking, analysts said.

The quarter-to-quarter percentage of CMBS loans in special serving did not change, said Fitch managing director Stephanie Petosa, even though at 9% it marks “a significant decrease from the peak at 12% in 2010.”

Data show the volume of CMBS loans in special servicing continues to decrease. It fell $4.1 billion, down from $64.2 billion at the end of the previous quarter, to $60.1 billion in 2Q 2013.

But at the same time, according to the Fitch Ratings U.S. CMBS index, during the second quarter of 2013 the recovery rate dropped to 60.5% from 71.4% in the first quarter.

However, up to 30 CMBS loans had liquidation losses of at least 95% last quarter, said Petosa, “while 16 of those loans saw losses of 100% or greater.”