‘Amazon Effect’ has Bankers Re-Examining Their Loan Portfolios, Tightening Underwriting

In a change from addressing investor concerns about their construction and development and multifamily lending as they have in the past few quarters, bank executives and analysts refocused on a new topic this past quarter: addressing perceptions of retail weakness in their real estate lending.

Many banks even had prepared slides in their presentations breaking out their retail real estate concentrations for analysts, some at the request of their boards of directors.

While at this point bankers are not overly alarmed about the sector, it’s clear they have gotten the message from their investors and are increasingly sensitive to the issues some of the big national retailers are experiencing.

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