Origination

Regency Centers Corp., Jacksonville, Fla., has closed a new $341.5 million credit facility consisting of a term loan of approximately $227.7 million and a revolving credit facility of approximately $113.8 million. The real estate investment trust said the facility includes an option to increase the amount to $400 million. The initial interest rate is 105 basis points over the London interbank offered rate on the term loan, and LIBOR plus 90 bps on the revolving portion. Wells Fargo Bank NA was the sole lead arranger and administrative agent of the facility. The REIT can be found on the Web at http://www.regencycenters.com.

1031 Exchange Options, a real estate investment consultancy based in Walnut Creek, Calif., has changed its name to Inverness Real Estate Investments. The company said the name change reflects its "increased focus on individual investors" seeking to buy institutional-grade real estate. "While much of our past business came from clients seeking investment properties to complete a 1031 exchange, we have seen over the past three years that our broad selection of real estate investment opportunities is drawing increased interest from direct investors," said Cary Losson, founder and president of Inverness. The company can be found online at http://www.invernessrei.com.

Commercial and multifamily mortgage debt outstanding rose to $3.3 trillion at the end of 2007, a 12% increase from the level recorded a year earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The Washington-based trade group said that, based on an analysis of Federal Reserve data, commercial and multifamily mortgage debt outstanding increased by $84.6 billion in the fourth quarter alone. Multifamily debt outstanding stood at $831 billion at the end of 2007 after a record increase of $28.2 billion, or 3.5%, in the fourth quarter. "Fourth-quarter increases in the level of mortgage debt outstanding were driven by increases in the holdings of commercial banks and the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," said Jamie Woodwell, the MBA's senior director for commercial/multifamily research. "Both groups took advantage of capital market disruptions and the lack of [commercial mortgage-backed securities] competition to increase their holdings of commercial and multifamily mortgages." Commercial banks continue to hold the largest share of commercial/multifamily mortgages, with almost $1.4 trillion, or 42% of the total.

Five classes of subprime certificates issued by Structured Asset Investment Loan Trust in 2003 have been downgraded by Moody's Investors Service. The downgrades were as follows: series 2003-BC4, class M1, from Aaa to A1, class M2, from Aa2 to Baa1, and class M3, from Aa3 to Baa3; series 2003-BC5, class M1, from Aa1 to A1; and series 2003-BC9, class M1, from Aa2 to A1. "The stepping down has left the deals with thin credit enhancement levels and made them more vulnerable to pool deterioration in the tail end of the deals' lives," Moody's said. The rating agency said all three deals had pool factors below 10% as of February. The transactions are backed by first- and second-lien subprime mortgage loans.

Commercial and multifamily mortgage delinquencies ended 2007 at or near record lows for most major investor groups, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. In its first such analysis, the MBA looked at commercial/MF delinquency rates since 1996 and compared year-end rates for the five largest investor groups: commercial banks and thrifts, commercial mortgage-backed securities, life insurance companies, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. For CMBS, delinquency rates were lower than those at the end of nine of the previous 10 years; for Fannie and Freddie they were equal to or lower than in 10 of the previous 11 years; and for life companies they were lower than in the previous 11 years. For banks and thrifts, they were lower than in five of the previous 11 years, the MBA reported. "While the numbers aren't comparable across different investor groups, within each group they show a common theme -- for nearly every investor group, commercial/multifamily loans are currently performing at some of the strongest levels on record," said Jamie Woodwell, MBA's senior director of commercial/multifamily research. The MBA can be found online at http://www.mortgagebankers.org.

Payment Reporting Builds Credit, a national credit bureau based in Annapolis, Md., and the National Credit Reporting Association have released new protocols for manually verifying credit applicants' identity and bill payment accounts and histories. The new procedures include safeguards to prevent conflicts of interest and to audit members' compliance, the organizations said. PBRC said only trade line histories that have been manually verified using the new procedures will be incorporated in PRBC's credit data repository and its credit reports. "For some time, mortgage and some auto lenders have considered rent and utility payment histories to assess creditworthiness and price loans when borrowers lacked traditional credit histories," said Michael Nathans, PRBC's founder. "But the collection and verification of such trade line data has been inconsistent, un-monitored, and un-scored. As a result, we have been told by secondary-market investors and mortgage insurers that the repayment performance of loans approved using this data has varied widely from lender to lender and that data quality is the suspected cause." PBRC can be found online at http://www.pbrc.com.

The PMI Group Inc., Walnut Creek, Calif., has again rescheduled the release of its fourth-quarter and year-end financial results because of problems in obtaining final 2007 financial results from FGIC Corp., in which it owns a 42% stake. Originally, PMI had announced March 12 as the rescheduled release date. Now the company says it will issue its financial results before the financial markets open on March 17, followed by a conference call at 11:30 a.m. EDT. PMI also said it plans to complete and file its Form 10-K on March 17. In connection with the preparation of its consolidated financial statements, PMI says it is conducting an analysis to determine whether the value of its investment in FGIC was impaired as of Dec. 31, 2007. The analysis cannot be completed until it receives the final information from FGIC necessary to complete its consolidated financial statements, PMI said. The company previously released preliminary results, which indicated that its U.S. mortgage insurance operations lost $236.0 million in the fourth quarter and $190.8 million for all of 2007.

The Federal Reserve, in conjunction with several other central banks, has announced new measures to promote liquidity in financial markets. Under the new Term Securities Lending Facility, the Fed will lend up to $200 billion of Treasury securities to primary dealers secured for a term of 28 days (rather than overnight, as in the existing program) by a pledge of other securities, including federal agency debt, agency residential-mortgage-backed securities, and nonagency triple-A rated private-label residential MBS. Securities will be sold via weekly auctions, beginning March 27. In addition, the Federal Open Market Committee has authorized increases in its temporary reciprocal currency arrangements, or swap lines, with the European Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank. The latest actions supplement measures announced March 7 to boost the size of the Fed's Term Auction Facility to $100 billion, among other things. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, termed the Fed move "a significant step" to address the "liquidity lock-down" in U.S. credit markets, but he called for further steps to address "the foreclosure crisis." He said he is preparing legislation to do so.

If mortgage lenders thought a stronger-than-expected spring homebuying season would help reverse their fortunes, they should think again, according to a new report issued by Morgan Stanley. The report says the housing market is weak in most key markets, including California and Florida. After polling 1,000 Realtors, Morgan is predicting a 19% decline in sales this homebuying season. Morgan analyst Ken Posner writes that his group is "defensively positioned, preferring to avoid or short stocks with mortgage-related credit exposure." He adds that, "Zeroing in on the issue of obtaining mortgages, our Realtors report that down payments are now the biggest stumbling block" to buying a home.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson continues to dismiss calls for helping borrowers with "underwater" mortgages through principal reductions that are being advocated by some federal banking regulators. It's not the "government's job" to help borrowers who would walk away from their homes because the properties' values have dropped and they don't want to pay the mortgage, Secretary Paulson told the American Bankers Association. The Treasury secretary played an important role in getting mortgage servicers to join the Hope Now alliance, which is focused on helping struggling homeowners who want to stay in their homes but can't afford their mortgage payment because of a change in their ability to pay or the reset of an adjustable-rate mortgage. He stressed that it is important for the Hope Now servicers to publicly disclose the results of their workout efforts so that everyone can see whether the servicers are following through on the commitments. "I won't look kindly on free riders," Mr. Paulson said. Last week, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben S. Bernanke called on lenders to make permanent reductions in the principal amount of a mortgage to help troubled borrowers stay in their homes or refinance into a Federal Housing Administration-insured mortgage.