Fed May Create Special Facility for CRE

Via the Wall Street Journal:

The latest big threat to economic recovery in the U.S., the commercial property market, could be the next target of an expanded special lending program from the central bank, Dennis Lockhart, president of the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank, said Saturday.

“On our watch list this year as a risk to the [economic] outlook is continuing worsening in the commercial real estate sector,” Mr. Lockhart said.

The central banker was speaking at a conference on financial policy hosted by Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management to honor former Fed Governor Dewey Daane.

Fed policymakers are still considering whether to include sponsorship for commercial property loans under its Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF, Mr. Lockhart said, adding that there's been no official decision.

“The details haven't been fully worked out,” he said.