| The daily source on REITs and real estate investment | April 1, 2009 |
 |
|
| REITWise™ 2009 Wrap-Up |
This year's REITWise™: NAREIT's Law, Accounting & Finance Conference took place last week in La Quinta, Calif., and was attended by approximately 500 participants from private and public REITs and real estate operating companies, as well as professionals from legal, finance and accounting firms.
Those in attendance gained important information and tools to help them manage through today's economic and credit-market turmoil. Major topics included accessing equity, prospects for unsecured debt sources, tax issues regarding cancellation of debt and other liquidity-related issues.
It's not too early to start preparations to attend NAREIT's next event -- REITWeek 2009: NAREIT's Investor Forum -- which will take place June 3 to 5 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. Be sure to visit REIT.com for more information about REITWeek as it becomes available.
If you don't receive the Real Estate Investment SmartBrief on a daily basis but find the conference-related stories below to be interesting and useful, sign up to receive our daily brief for free. |
 | Click here to download a case study and services overview.
Zenta is the leading Knowledge Process Outsourcing firm focused on the Commercial Real Estate Industry. Learn more today! |
| CEO & Analyst Updates |  |  |
|
- Obama meets with bankers, says banks are key to recovery
President Barack Obama stressed the need to stabilize U.S. financial institutions as he went into a meeting with banking executives late last week. Obama wanted to get the executives' input on the White House's new financial rescue plan. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama will continue to stress that healthy banks are necessary to the nation's economic recovery. Google/The Associated Press
(3/27)
    
- Legislators, bankers say regulation is choking lending
Lawmakers and banking representatives say stringent
requirements to maintain large cash reserves make it difficult for banks to resume normal lending activity. At a recent House Financial Services Committee hearing, lawmakers asked regulators to give banks more leeway to restore the flow of credit. U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Elizabeth Duke said regulators shouldn't impose "unreasonable or artificial constraints" on lenders. Reuters
(3/25)
- Fear of intervention may keep debt markets locked up
Investors say they're torn over recent government efforts to restore the flow of credit, saying the programs may do as much as harm as good in the long run. Investors are cheered by government guarantees of debt and federally provided leverage. Yet worries that the government may change course down the line may dissuade investors from buying in, limiting the programs' impact. Reuters
(3/26)
 |
|  |
| | The FTSE NAREIT All REIT Index has lost 35% of its value year-to-date.
With market rents declining and vacancy increasing, reducing G&A is a top priority. Contact Megan Martin: mmartin@zenta.com to learn how you can immediately lower your company's G&A by over 50%. Zenta offers expertise in Lease Administration, Property Accounting, Due Diligence, and much more. www.zenta.com | |
 |
 ADVERTISEMENT |
|  |
| Economic Outlook 2010 | | |
|
- Lift mark-to-market, but only for a moment
Mark-to-market accounting regulations should be lifted on a temporary basis for certain companies in order to increase their stability and help them remain solvent. By easing these regulations, firms can get their houses in order without resorting to complicated financial engineering techniques that are often used to improve a firm's financial picture. The need to stabilize certain large financial firms outweighs the need to provide transparency at the moment. Seeking Alpha
(3/27)
| In the REIT World | | |
|
- Can the Treasury's plan get credit moving again?
Will Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's toxic-assets plan be able to restore the flow of credit? Experts are relieved that the Public-Private Investment Program favors market solutions that can restore investor confidence and get capital moving again. But although the plan has a shot at success, investors shouldn't look for a quick turnaround. Banks that take write-downs to remove bad assets may need new capital before they can start lending, and some banks may already be too insolvent to be effectively rescued. RGE Monitor
(3/25)
- Former SEC chief: Work to solve the next crisis now
Former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt says there are three urgent needs to prevent the next financial meltdown. First, the government must have more data on all of the entities
functioning in the capital markets; second, it must share the information with the markets, the public and regulators; and third, it must have full authority to respond when circuit breakers are tripped. USA TODAY
(3/27)
- Letter to the WSJ: Fixing mark-to-market is the first step to better accounting
Banks shouldn't need to choose between providing a clear picture of their financial health and avoiding forced deleveraging because of falling asset prices, writes Robert D. Arnott, chairman of Research Affiliates, in a letter to the Wall Street Journal. By creating a system that allows banks to smooth the asset hit over three to five years in their financial reporting and that requires full and immediate disclosure of the total amount of the asset reduction, banks could provide transparency for their shareholders without being stampeded into a forced raising of capital. The Wall Street Journal
(3/26)
- Op-Ed: Changing rules undercuts investor confidence
When the Financial Accounting Standards Board agreed to propose new rules for valuing distressed loans and securities on banks' books, it established the basis for banks to obscure the impairments they'd sustained on the assets, writes Arthur Levitt in this Washington Post Op-Ed. Levitt said the proposed rules will decrease investor confidence and undermine the faith in financial data that is so essential to the U.S. economy. The Washington Post
(3/26)
| SmartQuote | | |
|
 | We think that, while there's always a problem of bad loans, there's a very big problem of not enough good loans."
--Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.,
chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.
Read more.
|
| | |
Product announcements appearing in SmartBrief are paid advertisements and do not
reflect actual NAREIT endorsements. The news reported in SmartBrief does not necessarily
reflect the official position of NAREIT.
|
| Advertise |
|
Sales Account Director:
Abiy Bekele 212-450-7919
|
| |
| Read more at SmartBrief.com |
|
|  |
|
| |
| |
| | Recent Real Estate Investment SmartBrief Issues:
- Tuesday, March 31, 2009
- Monday, March 30, 2009
- Friday, March 27, 2009
- Thursday, March 26, 2009
- Wednesday, March 25, 2009
| | | Mailing Address:
SmartBrief, Inc.®, 1100 H ST NW, Suite 1000, Washington, DC 20005 | |
| |
|
| © 1999-2009 SmartBrief, Inc.® Legal Information |
|
