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CREFC Hosts 5th Annual Real Estate Debt Case Competition; Yale University Takes Top Honors

April 17, 2026

University Students Compete for $45,000 in Prize Money

NEW YORK, NY – April 17, 2026 – The CRE Finance Council (CREFC) this week hosted its 5th Annual Real Estate Debt Case Competition, bringing together top undergraduate and graduate students from 11 leading U.S. universities for an intensive, real-world commercial real estate finance challenge.

Now in its fifth year, the competition has become a cornerstone of CREFC’s efforts to connect emerging talent with the industry, giving students a hands-on opportunity to analyze, structure, and present a complex commercial real estate lending decision under real-world conditions.

Teams competed for $45,000 in total prize money, presenting their recommendations to a panel of senior industry professionals.

Top honors were awarded to:

• 1st Place – Yale University
• 2nd Place – Florida State University
• 3rd Place – The Pennsylvania State University

“The debt case competition reflects the strength and aptitude of the next generation entering the CRE finance industry,” said Lisa Pendergast, President and CEO of CREFC. “The caliber of teams this year was exceptional. Students brought thoughtful, well-structured analyses and a level of professionalism that mirrors what we see in the industry today. It’s exciting to see this kind of talent emerging, and this program plays a critical role in connecting them to the CRE finance community.”

Competitors presented their analyses of a commercial real estate lending decision using a case study based on a real-world transaction. The teams had one week to prepare the analysis and presentation materials, which were judged by a panel of senior commercial real estate finance executives using evaluation criteria including the team’s analysis, conclusion, and presentation skills.

The case study was developed in collaboration with Ares Management LLC, providing students with a realistic and timely industry scenario.

The 11 U.S. universities with top-rated real estate programs invited to take part in this year’s competition included:

• Cornell University
• Florida State University 
• Fordham University
• NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate
• The Pennsylvania State University
• UC Berkeley Haas School of Business
• University of Florida
• University of Miami
• UT Austin McCombs School of Business
• Villanova 
• Yale University

Through initiatives like the Real Estate Debt Case Competition, CREFC continues to expand its educational programming and strengthen connections between academia and the commercial real estate finance industry.

For more information about the competition or CREFC’s Young Professionals Network, please contact Danielle Nathan. 

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NCREIF and CREFC Release Fourth Quarter 2025 Open-End Debt Fund Aggregate and Open-End Moderate-Yield Debt Fund Index Reports

April 16, 2026

We are pleased to provide you with the NCREIF/CREFC Open-End Debt Fund Aggregate and Open-End Moderate-Yield Debt Fund Index Reports for Fourth Quarter 2025.

Snapshot Reports are available to the public and also can be found on the CREFC website.

Membership Reports are located in the CREFC Resource Center for CREFC Members only. 

4Q25 Open-End Debt Fund Aggregate

 Snapshot Report

Membership Report

Snapshot Report

Membership Report

Please visit CREFC's Website for more information and to view past reports. For any questions or suggestions and/or if you wish to become a debt fund contributor, please contact Lisa Pendergast. 

 About CREFC

• CREFC is the trade association for the commercial real estate finance industry. Member firms include balance sheet and securitized lenders, loan and bond investors, private equity firms, servicers and rating agencies, among others. 
  
• Our industry plays a critical role in the financing of office buildings, industrial and warehouse properties, multifamily housing, retail facilities, hotels, and other types of commercial real estate that help form the backbone of the American economy.
  
• CREFC promotes liquidity, transparency, and efficiency in the commercial real estate finance markets. It does this by acting as a legislative and regulatory advocate for the industry, serving a vital role in setting market standards and best practices, providing education for market participants, and publishing the well tracked CREFC Board of Governors Sentiment Index. Our most recent collaborative effort is working with our friends at NCREIF to develop the NCREIF/CREFC Open End Debt Fund Aggregate.
  
• CREFC hosts major industry conferences that bring together market participants from leading commercial real estate finance companies and organizations. Complementing these major conferences are regular After-Work Seminars and regional conferences held throughout the year on an annual basis

About NCREIF

• NCREIF is the leading provider of investment performance indices and transparent data for US commercial properties. Data Contributor Members submit data to NCREIF for inclusion in its various indices and data products. NCREIF is a member-driven, not-for-profit association that improves private real estate investment industry knowledge by providing transparent and consistent data, performance measurement, analytics, standards, and education.
  
• NCREIF serves the institutional real estate investment community as a non-partisan collector, validator, aggregator, converter and disseminator of commercial real estate performance and benchmarking information. Our members include investment managers, investors, consultants, appraisers, academics, researchers and other professionals in the real estate investment management industry.
  
• NCREIF is a data service provider that meets its members' and the investment and academic community's need for high quality, transparent, timely and accurate commercial real estate data, performance measurement and benchmarking indices, investment analysis, reporting standards, research, education and peer group interaction. 

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Congressional Outlook: No Movement on Housing Bill Expected

April 14, 2026

This week the House and Senate return from a two-week district work period with a long to-do list.

• House leaders have not resolved key concerns with the housing bill, with further action not expected on the House’s docket this week. Click here for more background on the single-family rental provisions of the bill. 
• The House is also looking at potentially expelling four members embroiled in various scandals. Two of those members, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) have announced they will resign. 

Why it matters: The Department of Homeland Security is still closed, budget season is well underway, the Foreign Intelligence Act lapses on April 20, and the budget reconciliation process needs to begin if Congress is to meet the President’s June 1 deadline.

• OMB Director Russ Vought will testify in both chambers on the President’s Budget and a number of agencies will appear before committees across the hill to discuss their respective budget requests. 
• In the House, there also could be a vote on a War Powers Resolution to suspend the engagement in Iran, an additional vote to require the Secretary of Homeland Security to designate Haiti for temporary protected status, and potentially a measure to expel Congressman Eric Swalwell, Congressman Tony Gonzales, Congressman Cory Mills, and Congresswoman Cherfilus-McCormick, though Swalwell and Gonzales now intend to resign.
• The Senate will continue to process nominations and restart debate on the SAVE Act.

Housing Bill: House Republicans and Democrats continue to call for changes to the Senate version of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act (H.R. 6644). The limit on large intuitional investors’ purchases of single-family homes for rent remains a point of contention. 

Department of Homeland Security: Before the Easter break, the Senate passed a measure funding DHS, excluding the departments of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

• The Senate plan would fund ICE and CBP through partisan reconciliation for three years. The House rejected that approach and instead passed a continuing resolution before leaving for Easter. 
• After a week (and a public message from President Trump), House leadership switched gears and announced support of the Senate’s plan as the only viable path forward. However, the House Republican Conference pushed back on the turnaround, insisting that reconciliation must begin to ensure CBP and ICE are funded. 
• The Senate-passed package will not be on the House floor this week. 

Budget Reconciliation: Senate Budget Chair Lindsay Graham has started drafting the Budget Reconciliation instructions and has made sure to underscore the need to keep this package narrow to only the DHS priorities. 

• Specifically, from a cost standpoint, their argument is that this would have been funded through the appropriations process, so they do not need to offset the costs as they did with the first package. 
• Any additional policy priorities will be teed up for a third package Republicans hope to pass before the election. 
• Senate Leadership’s goal is to have a budget resolution ready for floor action as soon as next week to spur activity in the House on the DHS funding bill. 

FISA: One of the top priorities this week is reauthorizing FISA before it expires on the 20th. 

• However, House Republicans are split on the issue. Conservatives want amendments that would add warrant requirements, while others are trying to attach the SAVE America Act. 
• Given these dynamics, House Leadership will need heavy buy in from the White House to pull it over the line. 

Contact David McCarthy (dmccarthy@crefc.org) with questions.

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Economy, the Fed, and Rates…

April 14, 2026

Economic Data & Labor Market

• The first clear household-level inflation print from the Iran war is now in hand. March CPI rose 0.9% m/m and 3.3% y/y, the fastest annual pace since May 2024, with gasoline up 21.2% m/m, its largest monthly increase since at least 1967. Core CPI was firmer and relatively contained at 0.2% m/m and 2.6% y/y, which suggests the shock has hit energy hard first, with broader pass-through still in its early stages.
• Consumer psychology deteriorated sharper than the labor data. The University of Michigan’s preliminary April sentiment index fell to a record-low 47.6 from 53.3 in March. One-year inflation expectations jumped to 4.8% from 3.8%, while long-run expectations edged up to 3.4%. Expectations are worsening faster than payrolls.
• Consumer spending was already soft before the March CPI shock. February real PCE rose only 0.1%, real disposable income fell 0.5%, and the saving rate was 4.0%. Higher fuel costs are acting like a tax, while a shakier stock market threatens the wealth effect that has kept upper-income spending resilient.
• Labor still looks stagnant rather than broken. March payrolls added 178,000, but the six-month trend remains soft, job openings are subdued, hiring is weak, and wage growth has slowed. That leaves the labor market too soft to be reassuring, but not yet weak enough to force the Fed’s hand.
  

Federal Reserve Policy and the Growth/Inflation Squeeze

• The Fed is still on hold, but the bar for cuts rose again this week. Minutes from the March 17-18, 2026 meeting show policymakers wrestling with both sides of the war shock: most saw a risk that weaker growth and labor-market damage could justify cuts, while many also warned that persistently higher oil prices could require hikes to keep inflation expectations anchored.
• The ceasefire may make short-run easing harder, not easier. If the truce reduces demand-destruction risk more than it removes energy and goods-price pressure, the Fed is left with a milder but more persistent inflation problem. Recession odds fall a bit, but inflation odds do not fall proportionately.
• Policy patience still looks like the base case. The Fed’s public line remains that supply shocks are something policymakers can wait through unless they start to dislodge expectations. The likely path is a hold through most of 2026, with cuts only later if the labor market softens and the war shock rolls off.

Treasury Yields & Bond Markets

• Rates were volatile, but the week ended with a mixed signal rather than a one-way selloff. At the Friday close, the 10-year Treasury yielded 4.32%, the 2-year 3.80%, and the 30-year 4.91%. The 10-year and 2-year were down on the week, while the 30-year was flat, a sign that growth worries partially offset inflation fear in the front and belly of the curve even as the long end stayed sticky.
• March was still a bad month for duration. The Treasury market logged its biggest monthly loss in more than a year. The rates path swung violently over the course of the war. Markets now price less than a one-in-four chance of even a single 25 bp cut in 2026, versus pricing for two cuts before the war began. The message is not conviction; it is a market still toggling between inflation impulse and slowdown risk.
• The cleanest rates takeaway is curve uncertainty, not outright Fed hawkishness. The CPI report did not show major inflation pressure outside energy. Long-end duration still carries a war-risk premium, but the front end has stopped behaving as though hikes are the only plausible path.

Dollar, Commodities & Market Dynamics

• The energy shock remains the macro core. Hormuz remains effectively constrained, with exports running at only 8% of normal, per Goldman Sachs. U.S. crude prices moved from about $70 when the war began to more than $110 in recent weeks, before retracing after the ceasefire.
• This is no longer just a crude-oil story. Refined products and industrial inputs matter more to the real economy than headline crude alone. Diesel, jet fuel, fertilizer, plastics, aluminum, steel, natural gas, and helium are part of the transmission channel, which is why the growth hit can widen even if spot oil stops rising.
• Risk assets have not capitulated, but optimism still looks too strong. Equity analysts continue to expect strong earnings growth, but market pricing and macro conditions suggest more caution is warranted. Earnings expectations still look high relative to the current backdrop.

Policy & Politics: Private Credit Comes onto the Radar

• Fed examining bank exposure to private credit. The Federal Reserve is asking major US banks for details on exposure to private credit funds amid a surge in redemptions and rising troubled loans, with examiners specifically focused on the debt private credit funds have taken on from banks. The Treasury is running a parallel inquiry into insurance company exposure. The $1.8T industry has come under FSOC and FSB scrutiny in recent weeks.
• Dimon warns leveraged-lending losses will exceed expectations. In his annual shareholder letter, Jamie Dimon flagged “modestly weakening” credit standards across the leveraged lending universe, aggressive forward assumptions, weaker covenants, and growing PIK usage, arguing losses in the next credit cycle will be larger than consensus expectations. Dimon stopped short of calling private credit a systemic risk, but cited transparency and valuation concerns.

CRE Finance Market Implications

• Private credit stress is the underappreciated CRE risk. If scrutiny of private credit leads to tighter funding conditions, transitional CRE segments that rely more heavily on non-bank capital could feel it first. Fed and Treasury inquiries into private credit, combined with Dimon’s warning on leveraged lending standards, point to potential tightening.
• Washington’s housing-finance messaging is now part of the rate backdrop. Residential 30-year mortgage rates have climbed back above 6% on rising inflation expectations. With for-sale affordability still strained, the renter-retention dynamic supports multifamily occupancy and pricing power. Pimco made a broader argument that simply ceasing GSE IPO chatter could shave roughly 10 bps off mortgage rates, a useful reminder that policy noise itself carries a risk premium.

Sources: FT, WSJ, Bloomberg, Bloomberg Economics, BLS, BEA, Federal Reserve, University of Michigan Survey of Consumers, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan annual shareholder letter, PIMCO.

You can download CREFC's one-page MarketMetrics, which includes statistics covering the economy and the CRE debt capital markets, here.

Contact Raj Aidasani (raidasani@crefc.org) with any questions.

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Portfolio Lending Update: A Divergence in Spreads as Balance-Sheet Lenders Compete for Limited Deal Flow

April 14, 2026

The Insurance and Bank Portfolio Lenders Forums recently discussed market conditions amidst persistent geopolitical and macroeconomic headwinds. The primary takeaway is a notable divergence in pricing. Spreads have tightened for balance-sheet executions even as the broader capital markets experienced moderate widening.

Market Dynamics: The Search for Volume

The abundance of available debt capital relative to a limited supply of high-quality lending opportunities is driving downward pressure on spreads, forcing an override of potential increases in risk premiums.

• Vertical Stability vs. Core Drop: While bridge and construction verticals remain stable, the core pipeline has seen a significant contraction due to market volatility.
• The "Maturity Trigger": Acquisition activity remains muted. Outside of imminent maturities, borrowers are largely sidelining permanent loan refinancings in hopes of greater market certainty later in the year.
• Competitive Pricing: Banks have become increasingly aggressive in pricing construction and floating-rate products. The stance is challenging life company competitiveness in traditional "core" territories.

Benchmark Spreads & Pricing

Lenders are tightening spreads to "win" the few institutional-quality transactions coming to market.

Asset/Transaction Type and Reported Spread Range

• Multifamily Construction (Tier 1) - High 100s
• Other Major Asset Classes - Low 200s
• Back Leverage (Top-Tier) - ~130s

Note on CRE CLOs: The tightening of back-leverage pricing to the 130s serves as a potential dampener for the CRE CLO market, which has seen an orderly widening of spreads since the onset of recent geopolitical conflicts. Market participants have indicated a slow down on CRE CLO transactions is the likely result.

Credit Strategy & Risk Appetite

Despite the "chase" for yield and volume, the Forums expressed a disciplined approach to credit:

• Tier 2/Secondary Markets: Lenders are selectively exploring secondary markets to capture better spreads, but asset quality concerns remain a significant barrier.
• No "Race to the Bottom": There is little to no appetite among Forum members to lower credit standards or loosen underwriting discipline to secure deal flow.

Outlook: The Forums expect spreads to remain compressed in the near term until a meaningful pickup in transaction volume rebalances the supply/demand for debt capital.

Contact Rohit Narayanan (RNarayanan@crefc.org) with any questions.

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Florida Redistricting: A Potential GOP Expansion

April 14, 2026

Florida has become yet another state eager to participate in a wave of mid-decade redistricting ahead of the 2026 election. 

Why it matters: This redistricting effort is part of a broader national redistricting push, with both parties redrawing maps mid-cycle in an attempt to secure control of the U.S. House.

By the numbers: Today, the state’s congressional maps passed in 2022, already tilted heavily toward the GOP, stands at 20 Republicans and 8 Democrats across 28 seats. 

• Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has called a special legislative session for April 20, at which the Republican-controlled legislature is expected to begin debate on creating a new congressional map.
• Early projections suggest the new map could yield as many as five additional GOP-leaning seats, potentially shifting the delegation from 20–8 to as much as 25–3.
• Notably, the upper end of that range may be aggressive and legally contested. The effort is explicitly aimed at flipping Democratic-held districts, particularly in North Florida and parts of Central and South Florida.

Yes, but some Republicans are nervous about further diluting Republican votes across the state. 

• In a March special election for a state legislative district, the Democratic candidate flipped a traditionally GOP seat, representing a 21-point swing in favor of Democrats in comparison to the 2024 election. 
• This result is putting some Florida GOP members on edge about redistricting diluting their traditionally reliable GOP seats. Narrower partisan advantages could mean more Republicans lose seats in an election that heavily favors Democrats. 

“I think the Legislature needs to be very cognizant of the fact that if they get too aggressive … you could put incumbent members at risk,” GOP Rep. Greg Steube said. 

Source: Politico

What’s next: The special session to consider redistricting is set to start on April 20, 2026. Once state lawmakers convene it will soon become clear if this effort will have the political capital and time to have an impact on the 2026 election.

Contact James Montfort (jmontfort@crefc.org) with any questions.

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CREFC Advocates for Bank and Capital Markets Efficiencies

April 14, 2026

A deregulatory spirit in Washington at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and at the banking agencies has facilitated the financial markets’ continued push for structural improvements. 

CREFC is seizing the moment on two fronts, both of which have significant implications for CRE lending and securitization. They include: 

• Capital markets reform at the SEC; and 
• A sweeping overhaul of bank capital rules.

SEC’s Regulatory Reforms

The SEC is in the midst of a significant deregulatory pivot, with Chairman Paul Atkins declaring "it is a new day at the SEC." He has withdrawn dozens of prior-administration rulemakings and is refocusing the agency on capital formation and disclosure efficiency.

• In February 2026 testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, Atkins noted that "rules have multiplied faster than the problems that they were intended to solve." He also criticized decades of incremental rulemaking that have not, in his opinion, resulted in commensurate investor benefit.

SEC actions now in play hold significant implications for CMBS and the broader fixed-income market: 

• ABS Concept Release: Focused primarily on the RMBS market, this release invited industry input on any regulatory requirements related to the securitization markets as a whole. CREFC submitted a comment letter in December 2025 and followed up with a call with the SEC's Office of Structured Finance (OSF). CREFC is now preparing a second letter in response to direct questions from OSF staff.
• Rule 15c2-11: Issued in response to years of advocacy from CREFC and other market participants, the SEC has proposed to clarify that Rule 15c2-11, which governs dealer quoting in the equity markets, does not apply to fixed-income securities. 
  • This regulatory ambiguity has imposed unnecessary compliance friction on the CMBS market. CREFC will file a supportive comment letter ahead of the May 18, 2026 deadline, while also recommending additional technical clarity. 
• Rule 17g-5: CREFC, joined by MBA and SIFMA, filed a formal Petition for Rulemaking with the SEC to update Rule 17g-5, which governs credit rating agency access to deal information. The petition asks the SEC to eliminate inefficiencies in how information is shared across ratings agencies.

All the above advocacy efforts are consistent with a core CREFC principle: improving disclosure and reporting efficiencies in the CMBS market, while protecting the informational integrity upon which investors rely. The goal is not deregulation for its own sake, but smarter rules calibrated to how the market works best.

Bank Capital Reform: Basel III and the Standardized Approach

On March 19, 2026, the Federal Reserve, FDIC, and OCC jointly released long-awaited bank capital proposals, the culmination of a multi-year effort to implement Basel III in the United States. 

• The proposals represent a dramatic departure from the ill-fated 2023 "Basel Endgame" proposal, which would have required the largest U.S. banks to hold roughly 16-19% more capital. The rule was never finalized amidst overwhelming industry opposition.

Before the capital package was released, Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman, the architect of the new proposals, signaled the change in approach clearly during a March 12 speech at the Cato Institute:

As covered in previous CREFC Policy & Capital Markets Briefings, Bowman emphasized a "bottom-up" methodology, evaluating each requirement on its own merits rather than engineering the outcome to hit a predetermined aggregate capital target. 

Three proposals introduce a revised bank capital framework: 

• Basel III Proposal — Applies to Category I & II banks (the largest, most internationally active institutions). Introduces a streamlined "single stack" approach to risk-based capital calculations, replacing the prior dual-track model.
• Standardized Approach — Applies to Category III & IV banks and smaller institutions. Modernizes risk weights for traditional lending activities with a goal of better aligning capital requirements with actual risk profiles.
• GSIB Surcharge — Recalibrates the surcharge applied to Global Systemically Important Banks (GSIBs) to better reflect actual systemic risk, with an expected modest net decrease in the surcharge.

For CRE finance, the proposals contain several important improvements over prior rules:

• Under the Standardized Approach, CRE loan risk weights drop from 100% to 95%, modestly reducing the capital cost of traditional CRE lending.
• The Basel III proposal introduces a more differentiated capital treatment of CRE exposures, which the industry views as an improvement in risk sensitivity.
• The minimum risk weight for senior securitization positions drops from 20% to 15%. The ‘p-factor’, a key parameter in the securitization framework, remains at 0.5 rather than being raised to 1.0 as the 2023 proposal contemplated.
• The threshold-based deduction for mortgage servicing assets (MSAs) is eliminated. All MSAs will be assigned a 250% risk weight, which simplifies the framework and removes an overhang that had depressed bank participation in mortgage servicing.

While supportive of the proposals' direction, CREFC will push for additional improvements before the June 18 comment deadline, including: 

• Expansion of the definition of "regulatory CRE exposure" to reflect the realities of CRE structured finance.
• Changes in treatment of undrawn commitments, including warehouse lines.
• Granular CRE exposure treatment in the Standardized Approach (not just in the Basel III approach), so that smaller banks benefit from the same risk-sensitive framework.
  

Please contact Sairah Burki (sburki@crefc.org) with questions or if you want to join any of the above working groups.

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CRE Securitized Debt Update

April 14, 2026

Private-Label CMBS and CRE CLOs

Five transactions totaling $3.1 billion priced last week:

1. BX 2026-LP3, a $1.56 billion SASB backed by a floating-rate, interest-only loan for Blackstone to refinance a 69-property portfolio totaling 10.5 million square feet across 13 states. The collateral, managed by Link Logistics, is primarily industrial, including 37 warehouses and 25 light-industrial assets, plus a data center, a retail site, and other industrial/flex properties. The loan has a two-year initial term plus three one-year extension options.
2. HLTN 2026-DPLO, a $600 million SASB backed by a floating-rate, interest-only loan for Trinity Real Estate Investments and UBS to refinance the Diplomat Beach Resort, a 1,000-key full-service luxury oceanfront resort in Hollywood, FL. The loan has a two-year initial term plus three one-year extension options.
3. KRE 2026-ICNA, a $475 million SASB backed by a floating-rate, interest-only loan for KKR to refinance the Icona life-science campus in San Francisco's Mission Bay. The 752,000-square-foot office and lab property, developed by Kilroy Realty in 2018, is 85.9% leased and was financed as part of a $600 million debt package that also includes a $125 million mezzanine loan. The loan has a two-year initial term plus three one-year extension options.
4. NYC 2026-1325, a $282.5 million SASB backed by a fixed-rate, five-year loan for Rithm Capital to refinance 1325 Avenue of the Americas, an 826,000-square-foot Class A office tower in Midtown Manhattan. The 34-story property is 89.7% leased and was acquired as part of Rithm's $1.6 billion take-private of Paramount Group in December 2025.
5. NMR 2026-CGCTR, a $216.8 million SASB backed by a floating-rate, interest-only loan for a joint venture among Monarch Alternative Capital, Tourmaline, and CP Group to refinance Citigroup Center, an 805,877-square-foot, 34-story Class A office tower in downtown Miami. The mortgage is paired with $58.2 million of mezzanine debt. The property is 74.9% leased, with Citigroup as the largest tenant at 15.2% of NRA. The loan has a three-year initial term plus two one-year extension options.

By the numbers: YTD 2026 private-label CMBS and CRE CLO issuance totaled $50.8 billion, up 5% from the $48.3 billion for the same period last year.

Spreads Hold Steady

• Conduit AAA spreads were tighter by 3 bps to +77, while A-S spreads were up by 5 bps to +110.
• Conduit AA and A spreads were unchanged at +145 and +205, respectively.
• Conduit BBB- spreads were unchanged at +450.
• SASB AAA spreads were tighter by 5 bps to a range of +95 to +130.
• CRE CLO AAA spreads were unchanged at +145/+150 (static/managed), while static BBB- spreads were tighter by 25 bps to +325 and managed BBB- spreads were tighter by 10 bps to +350.

Agency CMBS

• Agency issuance totaled $5 billion last week, comprising $3.7 billion in Freddie K and Multi-PC transactions, $951.7 million in Fannie DUS, and $331.7 million in Ginnie transactions.
• Agency issuance for YTD 2026 totaled $50.7 billion, 35% higher than the $37.5 billion recorded for the same period in 2025.
  

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Warsh Nomination Hearing Delayed

April 14, 2026

The Senate Banking Committee hearing to consider Kevin Warsh as Federal Reserve Chair was pushed back as the committee waited for his paperwork. 

• The hearing had been expected to occur this Thursday, April 16. 
• Warsh’s paperwork has been finalized and a hearing is expected in a week on April 21. 

Why it matters: The Senate committee hearing is a first step before a committee vote to send Warsh’s nomination to the floor ahead of Powell’s term as chair ends. 

Yes, but: Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) remains opposed to advancing any Fed nominees until the Department of Justice investigation into Powell’s Senate testimony is resolved. 

• Tillis’ opposition deadlocks the 13-11 committee, assuming all Democrats oppose Warsh’s nomination. 
• A federal court quashed DOJ’s subpoenas of the Federal Reserve, which could have been an opening for prosecutors to drop the case. 
• However. U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro pledged to appeal the decision and continue the investigation.

What’s next: While Powell’s term as chair expires May 15, the Fed can vote to have him serve as Chair pro tempore in light of a vacancy, which Powell intends to do until a successor is confirmed. Powell’s full term of the Board of Governors does not expire until 2028. 

Contact David McCarthy (dmccarthy@crefc.org) with questions.

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