Certain commercial mortgage-backed securities now eligible collateral under TALF

The Federal Reserve Board last week announced that, starting in July, certain high-quality commercial mortgage-backed securities issued before Jan. 1, 2009, will become eligible collateral under the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF). The TALF is designed to increase credit availability and support economic activity in part by facilitating renewed issuance of consumer and business asset-backed securities (ABS) and CMBS. See the Fed's press release on this topic.