The low-rated CMBS market : mortgage REIT, financial innovation and policy lessons from the Asian and Russian financial crisis

As one of the most important financial innovations in 1990s, Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS) have provided significant amounts of financing for commercial real estate. However, when the Asian and Russian financial crisis hit in 1998, the low rated CMBS market almost dried up and one of the dominant investors Criimi Mae went to Chapter 11 for protection. This study investigates the events systematically from the perspectives of market structure and product development in the context of financial crisis. We found that the private and illiquid market structure and the short term marked-to-market repo financing together resulted in the disequilibrium of the low rated CMBS market during the financial crisis. Information efficiency and more resilient financing mechanism are needed to mitigate the conflicting interest between issuers/underwriters and investors of low rated CMBS.