When collateral is safe, there are less opportunities for things to go wrong. We examine matching between collateral and creditors in the commercial real estate mortgage market by comparing loans in commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS) conduits and bank portfolios. We model CMBS...

We use a unique loan-level dataset to compare portfolio and securitized commercial real estate loans. The paper documents how the types of loans banks choose to hold in their portfolios differ substantially from the types of loans the same banks securitize. Banks tend to hold loans that are...

There are two main creditors in commercial real estate: arm's-length investors and banks. We model commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) as the less informed source of credit. In equilibrium, these investors fund properties with a low probability of distress and banks fund properties that...

The increase in defaults in the subprime mortgage market is widely held to be one of the causes behind the recent financial turmoil. Key issues of policy concern include quantifying the role of various factors, such as home price declines and loosened underwriting standards, in the recent...