CHICAGO—With bank examiners beginning to pay more attention tothe details in lenders' risk management policies,similarly it behooves lenders to pay more attention to the risksthat can arise in the course of commercial real estate lending.“Commercial real estate lending is a significant line of businessin the banking industry,” said Bill Tryon,director of strategic development and principal withPartner Engineering and Science, Inc. “Substantiallosses and even bank failures can occur when risks are not wellunderstood and carefully managed.” These risks may be associatedwith environmental issues, construction challenges, seismicvulnerability or otherwise.

Tryon made this observation as moderator of a Partner webinar,“Under Pressure: Lender Compliance in the New RegulatoryLandscape.” The hour-long webinar aired Tuesday afternoon onGlobeSt.com and is now available for on-demand replay through Jan.6, 2015.

As for the new regulatory landscape, it comes courtesy of theSEC, FDIC and Office ofthe Comptroller of the Currency, among other sources. “TheOCC in particular issued revised guidance last year, which providesan increased level of detail concerning the risks of real estatelending,” said Tyron. “There are differences among the agencyrequirements, but there are also similarities which provide generalprinciples that I've always used when writing policies.”