For three consecutive years now, Wells Fargo & Co. has been ranked as the biggest servicer of commercial real estate loans. Its dominance in the sector was made possible through an acquisition more than three years ago. The ranking was released from an annual commercial mortgage convention.
The San Francisco-based company had a CRE servicing portfolio of 38,132 loans for $437.675 billion as of Dec. 31, 2011, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Commercial/Multifamily Mortgage Servicer Rankings released from the group’s annual CRE convention in Atlanta.
A year earlier, Wells serviced 39,125 loans for $451.1 billion. Its status as ‘top dog’ in the CRE servicing arena was made possible through its Dec. 31, 2008, acquisition of Wachovia Corp. — which had been ranked as the biggest commercial servicer as of the end of 2008.
Next on the 2011 list was PNC Real Estate / Midland Loan Services. The company’s servicing portfolio finished last year at 84,275 loans for $355.055 billion.
After that was Berkadia Commercial Mortgage LLC’s 23,863 commercial mortgages serviced for $176,489 billion, then Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s 9,840 loans for $115.046 billion and No. 5 KeyBank Real Estate Capital’s portfolio of 11,833 loans for $108.239 billion.
A total of a hundred CRE servicers were ranked in the report.
Wells Fargo also serviced the most securitized loans, and it had the biggest portfolio of loans held in warehouse.
PNC ranked as the biggest servicer of CRE loans owned by commercial banks and savings institutions. It was also the biggest servicer for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Federal Housing Administration and Ginnie Mae, and life insurance companies.
The biggest servicer of loans for credit companies, pension funds, real estate investment trusts and investment funds loans was GEMSA Loan Services LP.
MBA also reported that CRE debt outstanding is expected to rise from around $2.35 trillion as of Dec. 31, 2011, to $2.4 trillion by the end of this year. The number is expected to exceed $2.5 trillion by 2015.
Another report Monday from the Washington, D.C.-based association indicated that $150.6 billion in CRE loans held by non-bank lenders and investors will mature this year.
That works out to around 10 percent of outstandings and 3 percent less than matured in 2011. Compared to 2010, maturing CRE loans were down 18 percent.
The findings were culled from data on $1.46 trillion in outstanding non-bank CRE loans.
Credit companies and other investors will see 29 percent of their debt mature this year, while 11 percent of loans held in commercial mortgage-backed securities comes due. Life insurers will see 6 percent of their debt balloon this year, and just 4 percent of agency CRE debt is expected to mature.
“The volume of commercial and multifamily mortgages coming due has declined over the last two years, from $184 billion in 2010, to $155 billion in 2011, to $151 billion this year,” MBA Vice President of Commercial Real Estate Research Jamie Woodwell said. “And because commercial and multifamily mortgages are relatively long-term in nature, most years see ten percent or less of the total outstanding balance coming due.“
