There are signs that this state of affairs won't last much long. Perhaps the most significant only emerged this week: the International Accounting Standards Board Chairman Sir David Tweedie and US Financial Accounting Standards Board Chairman Robert Herz told reporters on Wednesday that within weeks they plan to issue a "controversial" proposal on financial instrument accounting that could change how banks value the loans on their books.

Meanwhile, it is business as usual, or at least how it's been for the last year or so, with banks and their customers. GlobeSt.com spoke with Tom Muller, a partner in the Real Estate & Land Use Practice Group at law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, about when this shift may occur.

GlobeSt.com: So lenders are still playing nice with distressed or troubled borrowers?

Muller: Yes, they are still being 'reasonable' and I put reasonable in air quotes. Of course as we all know they haven't been extending and pretending just to be nice. It has been to their advantage.

GlobeSt.com: What do you mean by reasonable?

Muller: In the '90s lenders would hear that a borrower was unable to pay and they would be quick—too quick sometimes—to exercise remedies such as foreclosing on a deed of trust. This recession is markedly different in that it is rare, particularly with commercial projects, for a lender to pull the trigger on these remedies now. That is because the drawbacks are still harsh for both flavors of lenders—the banks and the special servicers for CMBS. The banks, obviously, haven't wanted to take losses, especially on a huge number of loans.

CMBS servicers are in an interesting predicament as well, depending on the loan in question and whether the B piece buyer has already realized losses and now no longer has further veto or consultation rights. It's funny, many B piece buyers got into special servicing because it was a great source of fees but now they are feeling overworked and under compensated.

GlobeSt.com: So when do you see the government pushing banks to deal with the underperforming or distressed loans on their balance sheets?

Muller: The second half of this year this will all become unstuck and we will have more deal flow in this area. The government is realizing that it can't allow banks to stay stuck in neutral forever. We will see new policies from the government, although in tiny and subtle steps. It will start out with more information, maybe on a bank-by-bank basis where other bankers have to read between the lines of the guidance. Then it will become more overt.