Press Release

DBRS Morningstar Assigns MOR CS1 Special Servicer Ranking to CWCapital Asset Management

CMBS
February 02, 2023

DBRS, Inc. (DBRS Morningstar) assigned an MOR CS1 commercial mortgage special servicer ranking to CWCapital Asset Management, LLC (CWCAM or the Company), a wholly owned subsidiary of CW Financial Services LLC (CWFS). The trend for the ranking is Stable.

The assigned ranking reflects the following considerations:

-- CWCAM’s well-experienced management team and asset managers, whose combined ranks include several industry veterans adept at handling complex assets in commercial mortgage-backed securitizations (CMBS).

-- The Company’s successful and lengthy record resolving a sizable volume of troubled debt and real estate owned (REO) assets, which has especially involved large-loan and single-borrower transactions. The Company continues to be among the most active and largest-volume special servicers in the CMBS sector.

-- CWCAM’s well-controlled operating environment, including its solid analytics, disciplined asset deliberation procedures, and thorough reporting practices.

-- A solid internal audit regimen, which includes Regulation AB attestations and recurring examinations by third-party audit firms. A compliance committee oversees asset transfers and monitors adherence to servicing agreements using key performance indicator metrics and various tracking reports. Additionally, the Company has an active property manager audit program for REO assets.

-- CWCAM’s strong technology capabilities, which center on CWFS’ RealINSIGHT asset management application. As an application marketed to and in use by other special servicers, the cloud computing-based RealINSIGHT provides detailed workflow management and a high level of functionality. CWCAM also effectively uses RealINSIGHT’s web-based Marketplace platform to market and conduct asset sales. The Company has sound procedures for data backup, system security, and data recovery/business continuity testing.

As of June 30, 2022, CWCAM was the named special servicer on 321 transactions containing 11,542 loans with a total $220.0 billion unpaid principal balance (UPB). These totals included 208 Freddie Mac-sponsored securitizations that contained 9,250 loans with a total $156.90 billion UPB. The active special servicing portfolio had a total UPB of $3.66 billion consisting of 74 loans (63 in CMBS) and 36 REO properties (all in CMBS).

All rankings are subject to surveillance, which could result in rankings being raised, lowered, placed under review, confirmed, or discontinued by DBRS Morningstar.

DBRS Morningstar North American commercial mortgage servicer rankings are not credit ratings. Instead, they are designed to evaluate the quality of the parties that service commercial mortgage loans. Although the servicer’s financial condition contributes to the applicable ranking, its relative importance is such that a servicer’s ranking should never be considered as a proxy of its creditworthiness.

Notes:
All figures are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted.

The principal methodology is North American Commercial Mortgage Servicer Rankings (September 8, 2022), which can be found on dbrsmorningstar.com under Methodologies & Criteria.

For more information on this industry, visit www.dbrsmorningstar.com or contact us at info@dbrsmorningstar.com.

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