The Board of Governors of the Commercial Mortgage Securities Association (CMSA), a trade organization dedicated to the commercial real estate capital markets finance industry since 1994, has transformed CMSA into a new organization that will serve all constituencies within commercial real estate finance. CMSA is now the CRE Finance Council.
The creation of the Commercial Real Estate (CRE) Finance Council is reflective of the growing changes in global commercial real estate finance, and the importance its participants play in furthering the mission of this market. CRE Finance Council, created by and for its members, will help drive a vibrant, transparent and accessible commercial finance market, an integral part of the commercial real estate industry that serves a central role within the U.S. and global economies.
“Our intention always is to be responsive to our members and to the market’s changing course, and the CRE Finance Council is a natural and logical extension of this new course,” said Dottie Cunningham, chief executive officer of the CRE Finance Council.
The CRE Finance Council initially will include five ‘Forums’--CRE market participants that drive the global commercial real estate industry: investment-grade bondholders, multifamily lenders, portfolio lenders, servicers, and securities and loan investors. Each of the Forums will interact and address issues critical to its business sector and work to achieve solutions that serve a common purpose.
As these specialized Forums collaborate, the CRE Finance Council’s objectives will be to represent all Forum participants, manage disparate and converging views, advocate the consensus of positions to policy and lawmakers on behalf of the industry, educate members, continue developing best practices, and work toward the betterment of the entire commercial real estate finance market.
“We will always attempt to foster a consensus on issues that are important to our various stakeholders,” said Patrick C. Sargent, president of the CRE Finance Council and partner with Andrews Kurth LLP. “Where the CRE Finance Council finds consensus, it will advocate; where it finds differences of opinion, the Council will educate. Our members want an adaptive, expanded organization, forged by the successes of its predecessor, but one that serves all constituencies for our changing industry. And we are very excited to address the industry’s challenges and to advance our members’ objectives."
For more information, visit www.crefc.org.
