OREANDA-NEWS. March 25, 2016. Fitch Ratings assigns CBRE Loan Services, Inc. (CBRE) a commercial mortgage primary servicer rating of 'CPS2-'.

The rating reflects Fitch's assessment of the experienced management team and tenured servicing staff, robust policies and procedures supporting a sufficient internal control environment, as well as the financial strength of its ultimate parent, CBRE Group. In addition, the rating also considers CBRE's use of an older version of McCracken Strategy as the servicing system of record, partially mitigated by the robust use of internally developed ancillary systems, and the use of outsourcing for up to 75% of certain primary servicing functions with CBRE retaining daily oversight and approval authority. Given the number and scope of functions performed by the third-party, CBRE's primary servicer rating is limited to the '2' category.

CBRE Loans Services, Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of CBRE Capital Markets Inc. a wholly-owned subsidiary of CBRE Group, Inc. (CBG). CBRE Loan Services, Inc. is related by common ownership and leadership to CBRE Loan Servicing Limited, CBG's European servicing operation. As of Dec. 31, 2015, CBRE's \\$101.5 billion primary servicing portfolio is comprised of \\$26.9 billion of CMBS servicing and \\$74.6 billion of non-CMBS servicing on behalf of third-party life companies, U.S. Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs), and institutional investors.

The servicing company was formerly a separate production joint venture known as GEMSA Loan Services, L.P. between GE Capital Real Estate (GE) and CBRE Capital Markets. Each parent company provided equal funding and certain operational functions such as IT and human resources in exchange for CRE servicing for both entities. CBRE Capital Markets acquired full control of GEMSA in December 2015 and rebranded the entity as CBRE Loan Services, Inc. following the exit of GE from the CRE sector and subsequent asset sale.

As of Dec. 30, 2015, CBRE's total servicing portfolio consisted of 5,134 loans totaling \\$101.5 billion. Non-CMBS loans represented 74% of its servicing portfolio, for which CBRE serviced 55% for life insurance companies, 32% for GSEs, and 12% for institutional investors by loan count. As of the same date, the company acted as primary servicer for 1,423 CMBS loans, totaling \\$26.9 billion in 165 transactions. CBRE's CMBS primary servicing responsibilities consisted primarily of 2010 or later vintage transactions. The company's growth in CMBS primary servicing since 2011 has largely come from CBRE Capital Markets originated Freddie Mac loans, which are securitized through Freddie Mac's Capital Markets Execution (CME) program. CBRE also began retaining primary servicing for more traditional CMBS conduit loans in 2014 for loans originated and contributed by CBRE Capital Markets and other issuers.

Fitch's servicer rating methodology is described in Fitch's reports 'U.S. Commercial Mortgage Servicer Rating Criteria', dated Feb. 14, 2014 and 'Rating Criteria for Structured Finance Servicers' dated April 23, 2015, which are available on Fitch's web site www.fitchratings.com.