Washington, D.C. (December 1, 2005) – Today, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released a Commercial/Multifamily White Paper that interprets the regulated requirements for commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) servicer disclosure set forth by the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Asset-Backed Securities Regulation (Regulation AB). Regulation AB codifies the requirements for registration, disclosure and reporting of asset-backed securities, with full compliance after January 1, 2006. It pertains to publicly issued asset-backed securities (ABS) transactions including CMBS. Regulation AB affects all parties of public transactions including master and primary servicers, trustees, special servicers and in some instances vendors. MBA plans to issue an additional White Paper in the coming months addressing other aspects of the Regulation, namely attestation requirements for annual reporting.

This White Paper is intended to serve as an informational resource guide to servicer disclosure requirements outlined in Regulation AB. The audience is all CMBS industry participants and parties to public transactions.

“Regulation AB is multifaceted,” said Kathy Marquardt, chair of MBA's Commercial Real Estate/Multifamily Finance Board of Governors' (COMBOG) Asset Administration SEC ABS Working Group and senior vice president of GMAC Commercial Mortgage Corporation. “With specialized knowledge in both servicing and technology for the commercial and multifamily mortgage market sectors, MBA has brought together all affected parties to develop a comprehensive, interpretive guidance specifically for servicers.”

MBA created the SEC ABS Working Group earlier this year to educate and inform its members on the impact of Regulation AB. The working group consists of a broad industry community with over fifty members. Once the group was formed, the MBA then retained the technology consulting firm of Heil and Associates to assist in the implementation of Regulation AB as it applies to CMBS servicer disclosure. The consultants conducted numerous individual interviews with MBA members to gain insight into the existing servicer processes and to develop the resulting interpretive guidance on the impact of the Regulation AB requirements.

The White Paper includes:

• An overview of Regulation AB;
• Process flow for servicer disclosure;
• The role of the servicer;
• The level of disclosure necessary; and
• What should be disclosed.

The MBA White Paper - SEC's Regulation of Asset-Backed Securities: Interpretive Guidance on Regulated Disclosure for CMBS Servicing - can be accessed at  here.

Additionally, MBA, in conjunction with Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, has issued a comprehensive overview of the full regulation - Impact of CMBS Servicing, Regulation, Disclosure, and Reporting. This memorandum is a companion document to MBA's interpretive White Paper. The memorandum provides a detailed summary of the full regulation for use as a reference and is a non-interpretive document. To view the full memorandum,visit here.