OREANDA-NEWS. Along with the large volume of maturing CMBS loans through 2017 comes concern from some investors and master servicers about the transfer of loans to special servicing at or near maturity only for these loans to quickly payoff, according to Fitch Ratings in its latest US CMBS weekly newsletter.

Fitch reviewed 2016 special servicing transfers through mid-July. Fitch paid particularly close attention to the number of loans transferred for maturity-related reasons and how quickly those loans paid off as of July remittance dates. Fitch observed approximately 20% of loans transferred to special servicing for maturity-related default paid off within 120 days, and the majority within the first 30 days. However, the limited number of instances of quick loan payoffs (54 out of 271 loans) makes it difficult to draw any meaningful conclusions regarding special servicing behavior.

Fitch observed 533 loans have transferred to special servicing in 2016; the original principal balance (OPB) of these loans was $10 billion and the average OPB was approximately $19 million.