Winston & Strawn Sponsors, Michelle Abad Moderates at IMN’s 10th Annual Mortgage Servicing Rights Forum (East)

Winston & Strawn was a proud sponsor of IMN’s 10^thAnnual Mortgage Servicing Rights Forum (East) on November 21-22, 2024, in New York City. This conference is the nation’s preeminent event for exploring the investment, trade, risk management, and servicing of MSR assets.

Michelle Abad, partner and co-chair of Winston’s Residential Asset Finance and Securitization Practice, moderated a panel titled “Warehouse Lines: Lessons Learned From Recent Events.” Key takeaways from the panel can be found below. 

Key Takeaways

• There is a significant amount of liquidity for warehouse lines, with non-bank entities entering the space and absorbing what has been displaced by some banks withdrawing from warehouse lending
• Borrowers should take an active role in understanding their lender’s balance sheet and nurture their funding relationships so that they can anticipate market shifts
• The simplicity of multi-asset facilities should be weighed against fee structure, cross-commitments and defaults, covenant management, and operational concerns
• Basel III regulations and their implementation have created instability, with price increases going hand in hand with structural changes that have largely led to increasing costs for borrowers

Chris Gavin, partner and co-chair of Winston’s Structured Finance and Residential Asset Finance and Securitization Practices, was also in attendance.