NEW YORK CITY-In terms of basis points, the pace of CMBSdefaults may have moderated in the past few quarters, but it hasnow cumulatively climbed above the 10% mark, Fitch Ratings saidFriday. Defaults for fixed-rate US CMBS jumped 112 basis points inthe third quarter to 10.6%, the ratings agency said, compared to a133-bps rise to 9.48% at the end of the second quarter.

Last week, Horsham, PA-based Realpoint said that despite anotherlarge amount of monthly liquidations in September, thecorresponding percentage of loans by unpaid balance in specialservicing increased to 11.8% of all CMBS by unpaid balance inSeptember, up from 11.74% a month prior. Realpoint said it’s theresult of continued new loan transfer activity on a monthlybasis.

Within the Fitch-rated universe, new loan defaults year to dateare already at $21.66 billion, and have already surpassed the12-month total of $17.75 billion for 2009. The number of loandefaults through Q3 almost equals to the full-year ’09 total: 1,452and 1,464, respectively, according to Fitch.