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CREFC Annual June Conference: Key Takeaways from the Forums

June 23, 2026

The recently concluded CREFC Annual June Conference in New York City was a resounding success, marked by strong industry engagement and registration levels that surpassed last year’s figures. Across the seven core forum panels, the prevailing outlook among participants was one of cautious optimism. While macro headwinds, elevated interest rates, and short-term stagnant transaction volumes continue to present challenges, the underlying sentiment focused on highly resilient capital markets liquidity and stable fundamentals that position the industry well for an accelerating recovery. 

Servicers Forum

• Special servicing transfers have become more predictable, driven primarily by asset maturity stress rather than outright operational cash-flow deterioration. 
• Core office properties remain the primary driver of the special servicing pipeline. 
• Loan bifurcations into A/B note structures have reemerged as an effective workout strategy to grant borrowers the additional time and capital runway needed to stabilize assets. 
• While automation and artificial intelligence (AI) will significantly reduce administrative burdens, panelists emphasized that servicing remains a deeply judgment-driven business. 

GSE/Multifamily Lenders Forum

• The Agency multifamily capital market remains highly functional, with stable bond spreads despite broader macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility. 
• Ongoing interest-rate uncertainty continues to push borrower demand toward shorter five-year loan terms. 
• The multifamily sector exhibits severe bifurcation rather than broad distress; heavy supply pressures have flattened rent growth in Sunbelt markets like Phoenix and Austin, while lower-supply markets in the Midwest and Northeast continue to outperform.

Portfolio Lenders Forum

• Commercial real estate private credit has matured into a permanent, cyclical $2 trillion global market. 
• CRE private credit benefits from lower leverage levels and tangible collateral backing, separating its resilient performance from the negative headlines surrounding corporate private lending. 
• Lenders are heavily focused on data centers, prompting intense underwriting scrutiny around power availability, localized tenant credit, and residual asset value at lease maturity. 

Investment-Grade (IG) Bondholders Forum

• CMBS transaction issuance and spreads remain highly resilient, led primarily by robust activity in single-asset single-borrower (SASB) and CRE CLO structures. 
• While down-stack ratings migrations are highly consequential for ratings-sensitive investors, actual realized principal losses remain limited. 
• Investors expressed a clear need for greater reporting transparency, standardized workout documentation, and consistent appraisal disclosure practices to strengthen long-term market confidence. 
  

B-Piece Investors Forum

• The conduit CMBS market faces ongoing constraints from interest-rate volatility, leading to elongated transaction execution timelines as borrowers wait until exact loan maturities to transact. 
• The footprint of office collateral in conduit pools remains materially lower compared to prior credit cycles. 
• Structural downside protection is taking center stage across all property sectors, forcing a heavier focus on capital reserves, earlier cash-sweep triggers, and deep property condition due diligence. 

Alternative Lenders and High Yield Investors Forum

• Alternative lenders are no longer viewed as capital providers of last resort, but rather as preferred, solution-oriented institutional counterparties for bridge, construction, and refinancing needs. 
• A highly liquid and competitive debt environment has tightened spreads, placing a premium on execution certainty and lender differentiation. 
• Significant investment opportunities are emerging in discounted secondary loans, driven by ongoing balance-sheet pruning and credit pullback among regional banks. 

Issuers Forum

• Securitization issuance remains active but structurally uneven; year-to-date issuance across conduit, SASB, and CRE CLO formats totals ~$82 billion, though conduits accounted for just a 16% share of that volume. 
• Capital availability and credit appetite remain selectively broad across all major property types, including retail, self-storage, and industrial. 
• Lending decisions continue to hinge strictly on sponsorship quality, asset fundamentals, and structural discipline rather than borrower attempts to predict the forward direction of the interest-rate market.
  

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The CRE Finance Council Announces New Chairs for Industry Forums

June 9, 2026

New Chairs and Chair-Elects Introduced at Annual Conference this Week

 The CRE Finance Council (CREFC) today announced new Chairs for their 2026-2027 industry Forums. The new Forum leadership was elected at CREFC’s Annual June Conference in New York City this week.

CREFC’s Forums represent specific market constituencies that drive the U.S. commercial real estate finance industry. Forums include:

• Alternative Lenders and High-Yield Investors
• CMBS Investors:
  • CMBS B-Piece Investors 
  • CMBS Investment-Grade Bondholders
• CMBS Issuers 
• CMBS Servicers
  • Master Servicers
  • Special Servicers
• GSE/Multifamily Lenders 
• Portfolio Lenders
  • Bank Lenders 
  • Insurance Company Lenders

Each Forum interacts and addresses issues critical to its business sector, while working to achieve solutions that serve a common purpose and continue to drive the industry forward. CREFC’s Forums manage disparate and converging market views, advocate a consensus of positions to policymakers and lawmakers, educate members, develop market best practices and standards, and work to the betterment of these unique individual market sectors within the commercial real estate finance market in its entirety.

The incoming slate of Forum leaders includes:

• Alternative Lenders & High-Yield Investors. CREFC welcomes Tony LaBarbera (Blackstone) as Chair-Elect, Rachel Hunter-Goldman (KKR - Kohlberg Kravis Roberts) as Chair, and Samantha Rotchford (BDT & MSD Partners) as Past-Chair. In 2025-2026, Samir Tejpaul (Madison Realty Capital) served as Past-Chair.
• B-Piece Investors. CREFC welcomes Zach Freedman (Eightfold Real Estate Capital, L.P.) as Chair-Elect, Josh Brand (Argentic) as Chair, and Frank Yin (KKR-Kohlberg Kravis Roberts) as Past-Chair. In 2025-2026, Peter Lindner (Rialto Capital) was Past-Chair.
• GSE/Multifamily Lenders. CREFC welcomes Yahli Becker (Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.) as Chair-Elect, Lee Green (Wells Fargo) as Chair and David Haynes (CBRE Capital Markets, Inc.) as Past-Chair. Wayne Ip (Fannie Mae) and Jason Griest (Freddie Mac) serve as GSE representatives. In 2025-2026, the Past-Chair was Ahmed Hasan (Capital One). 
• Investment-Grade Bondholders. CREFC welcomes Li Pang (J.P. Morgan) as Chair-Elect, Wendy Pei (Ellington Management) as Chair, and Adam Smith (DWS) as Past-Chair. In 2025-2026, Rajesh Bansal (Quiq Capital) served as Past-Chair. 
• CMBS, CRE CLO and Agency Issuers. CREFC welcomes Raul Orozco (Citigroup Global Markets) as Chair-Elect, Scott Epperson (Goldman Sachs & Co.) as Chair, and Shaishav Agarwal (Barclays) as Past-Chair. In 2025-2026, Brigid M. Mattingly (Wells Fargo) served as Past-Chair. 
• Portfolio Lenders – Bank Lender Subforum. CREFC welcomes Mauricio Duran (Webster Bank) as Chair and Robert Grudzinski (U.S. Bank, NA) as Past-Chair. In 2025-2026, Bridget Scanlon was Chair. 
• Portfolio Lenders – Insurance Company Lenders Subforum. CREFC welcomes Lisa Paterson Simonetti (Apollo Global Management) as Chair-Elect, Kevin Catlett (Principal Real Estate Investors) as Chair, and Melissa Farrell (PGIM) as Past-Chair. In 2025-2026, Kevin Pivnick served as Past-Chair. 
• Servicers – Master Servicers Subforum. CREFC welcomes Michelle Engle (KeyBank) as Chair-Elect, Amanda Dugat (SitusAMC) as Chair, and Dana Jo Martino (Berkadia Commercial Mortgage LLC) as Past-Chair. In 2025-2026, Adam Fox (Fitch Ratings) served as Past-Chair. 
• Servicers – Special Servicers Subforum. CREFC welcomes William Clarkson (Torchlight Investors) as Chair-Elect, Brett Mann (LNR Partners) as Chair, and Alex Killick (CWCapital) as Past-Chair. In 2025-2026, Pamela Dent served as Past-Chair. 

“We are excited to welcome these new leaders to our industry Forums, which serve as the backbone of CREFC and all that it does. I want to thank all of our existing and past Forum leaders for their dedication and continued support of our work,” said Lisa Pendergast, President and CEO of CREFC. 

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CREFC GSE / Multifamily Lenders Forum Update

June 2, 2026 

On May 20, the CREFC GSE / Multifamily Lenders Forum convened an executive roundtable dinner in Washington, D.C. Hosted by CREFC CEO and President Lisa Pendergast, the event brought together prominent business leaders from across the GSE and multifamily sectors for an open-forum exchange.

Senior representatives from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — as well as Barclays, Cantor Fitzgerald, CBRE, Citi, JPMorgan Chase, PGIM, Regions Bank, Walker & Dunlop, and Wells Fargo — engaged in high-level discussions on housing affordability and evaluating the market impact of the recently released Basel regulatory capital proposal on agency bond buyers.

GSE Forum leadership is now turning its focus to the upcoming CREFC Annual Conference in New York City starting this Sunday. At the conference, each forum will deliver a comprehensive market briefing of the current state of their market sectors. Today, we focus on the GSE / Multifamily Lenders Forum Panel, scheduled for Monday, June 8, at 11:30 AM EST.

Moderator:

• Lee Green, Managing Director, Wells Fargo

Panelists:

• Yahli Becker, Senior Managing Director, Head of Agency CMBS, Cantor Fitzgerald
• Jeff Berenbaum, Head of CMBS Research, Citigroup Global Markets
• Jason Griest, Vice President, Multifamily Capital Markets Securitization, Freddie Mac
• David Haynes, Head of Agency Trading, CBRE Capital Markets
• Matthew Jones, CFA, Chief Investment Officer – Credit Investments, Harbor Group

Key Discussion Highlights:

• Market Fundamentals: Agency CMBS market trends, supply pipelines, vacancy rates, rent growth trajectories, and the overall NOI outlook.
• Origination Dynamics: Expected loan production volumes and the evolving multifamily lending environment.
• Investor Sentiment: Credit investor and borrower perspectives on asset valuation, market resilience, and current investor sales trends.

To join the CREFC GSE/Multifamily Lenders Forum, please click here.

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Servicing Sessions at Next Week’s Annual Conference

June 2, 2026

Our Annual Conference in New York next week is full of servicing related content. Here are some of the highlights:

Servicer Forum – Monday June 8th 10:30 – 11:15 AM

After the Monday morning keynote presentation, stick around for a lively discussion with the CREFC Servicer Forum leadership. Key topics on the current agenda include:

• Negotiating Loan Workouts 
  • Challenges associated with maturity-driven stress vs. operating distress
• Providing investor transparency without compromising negotiation leverage with the borrower
• Addressing evolving investor expectations and the various interests across the capital stack
• General Servicing
  • The evolution of loan documentation and servicing agreement language
  • Coordination between Master and Special Servicers
  • New trends observed amidst heavy influx of new servicers in the CMBS market

Joint CRE CLO and IRP Meeting – Monday June 8th — 12:30 to 1:30 PM

Grab a boxed lunch and join the joint CRE CLO and IRP meeting. Join CRE CLO industry colleagues and the IRP committee leadership to discuss the Collateral Manager Data Report (CMDR) implementation and proposed additions, servicer financial reporting standards for future CRE CLOs, and an update regarding the finalization of IRP V8.5 and potential upcoming initiatives.

Downstream Impact on the Servicing Playbook Panel – Tuesday June 9th 3:45 – 4:30 PM

Tuesday afternoon’s panel “In the Thick of It – Downstream Impact on the Servicing Playbook” will provide valuable perspectives from master servicers, special servicers, rating agencies, and investors regarding servicing issues. 

Current hot topics to be discussed include:

• Servicer advancing
  • Non-recoverability
  • SASB vs. conduit
  • Potential effect on workout strategies
• Investors’ desire for more information regarding workout plans, appraisal reductions, and loan performance 
• Pooling and Servicing Agreement innovations to address various servicing pinch points

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Introducing Spotlight on Servicing: Understanding CMBS Appraisal Reductions

May 12, 2026

CREFC is pleased to share the release of Understanding CMBS Appraisal Reductions as the first report in a new Spotlight on Servicing educational series focused on the servicing business.

Appraisal Reductions are a fundamental component of CMBS servicing, with direct implications for cash flow, bond performance, and investor control. The concept was created to limit the amount of servicer advancing that might not ultimately be recovered at disposition after a loan default.

Understanding appraisal reductions is essential to interpreting CMBS deal performance across the capital stack, particularly in periods of asset stress.  Our recently published Spotlight on Servicing is an entry level discussion that highlights the mechanics of Appraisal Reductions, including typical trigger events.

Additionally, a sample Appraisal Reduction Amount (ARA) calculation is provided, and the concept of Appraisal Subordinate Entitlement Reduction (ASER) is introduced.  Because an ASER will decrease the proportion of the monthly payment to be advanced on the loan, the potential impact of the effect on bondholder payments and bond ratings is discussed.

Download report here.

Contact Rich Carlson (rcarlson@crefc.org) with any questions.

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CREFC Balance-Sheet Lending Leaders Convene for Strategic Roundtable Dinner

May 5, 2026

Last week, CREFC President & CEO Lisa Pendergast hosted an exclusive roundtable dinner, bringing together key members of the Portfolio Lenders Forum (Bank and Insurance) and the Alternative Lenders & High Yield Investors Forum. The evening featured special guest Leland F. Bunch, CREFC Chair and Managing Director at Bank of America, alongside a distinguished group of leaders from the balance sheet lending community.

Participating firms included senior representatives from BGO, Blackstone, Bridge Debt Strategies, Derby Lane Partners, KKR, PGIM, Regions Bank, and US Bank. The intimate setting provided a unique venue for these industry leaders to engage in a candid dialogue regarding current market developments and to offer strategic suggestions on how CREFC can further support the sector.

Key Discussion Highlights:

• The Divergence of Private Credit Performance: The group examined the growing performance gap between unsecured Private Credit, which has faced increasing headwinds, and secured real estate debt funds. Participants noted that real estate debt funds have emerged as beneficiaries of this market divergence, providing strong value propositions in the current environment.
• Benchmarking and Data Development: A critical point of discussion centered on the need for improved transparency and data in the private secured debt space. Executives explored the potential for developing a dedicated index to provide accurate performance benchmarking for the sector.
• Market Trends, Competition, and Credit: Leaders shared observations on trends in the market: while overall deal volumes are down, competition among balance-sheet lenders remains fierce. Members reported that while spreads have tightened to secure quality transactions, they have successfully maintained rigorous credit standards, prioritizing portfolio resilience over volume.

Engage with CREFC Forums

CREFC’s Forums offer a dedicated space for members to share insights, develop industry best practices, and influence policy. We encourage all members to engage actively with their relevant forums to help shape CREFC’s policy and capital markets initiatives.

• Join a Forum: Visit the Forums Engagement Page
• Questions? For more information regarding CREFC Forums, please contact Rohit Narayanan at rnarayanan@crefc.org.

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