MBA Highlights 'Best Practices'.(Mortgage Bankers Association of America)(Brief Article)

Two new guidelines for the commercial servicing industry were released by the Mortgage Bankers Association of America (MBA) at the MBA's seventh annual commercial and multifamily mortgage administration conference held here.

Mark Hill, chairman of the MBA's asset administration committee and senior vice president of Laureate Capital, said, "These guidelines - the best practices report and the special borrower requests checklist - were issued to promote the streamlining of procedures and processes in the commercial real estate finance industry and to increase cooperation among industry participants."

The best practices report was developed by the MBA, in conjunction with the Commercial Mortgage Securities Association (CMSA), in response to concerns in the commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) industry about issues associated with incomplete or defective loan files.

The report details loan closing checklist requirements, core documents required in a CMBS transaction, the timeline for providing documents to the trustee/custodian and remedies for non- compliance.

An MBA/CMSA joint task force comprised of 95 volunteers from across the industry representing more than 60 organizations - including originators, issuers, master servicers, primary servicers, special servicers, trustees/ custodians, credit rating agencies, and CMBS investors - worked on identifying and recommending changes to current industry practices, the MBA said.

Joseph Philip Forte, chairman of the joint task force and a partner with Thacher, Proffitt & Wood, noted, "The best practices, as adopted, will go a ...