The chief executive of property finance industry body CREFC Europe has criticized comments made by the international financial regulator, the Financial Stability Board, that real estate lenders' ‘extend-and-pretend' loan modification practices could act as an amplifier of volatility at times of market stress. Lewis Gaut, partner in the real estate industry group, the joint venture practice and the real estate finance practice at law firm Goodwin, said the growth of the European commercial real estate back leverage market had increased the amount of scrutiny given to real estate loans among parties to the deal. “As credit funds continue to seek additional leverage, you have a situation where the back leverage counterparty is looking at the underwriting process and overviewing the diligence undertaken by the originating credit fund, and you can have transactions which are analyzed by different market participants two or three times over." Read the Real Estate Capital article for more.