Fitch Ratings said that defaults on commercial mortgage-backed securities declined for the fifth straight year in 2015, National Mortgage News reported yesterday. The annual default rate fell to 0.4 percent last year, after peaking at 4.1 percent in 2010. The cumulative default rate for CMBS fell to 13 percent from 13.3 percent in 2014. In total, 181 loans defaulted with a balance of $2.7 billion in 2015, compared to 294 loans totaling $3.9 billion in 2014 and 353 loans totaling $5.4 billion in 2013. Most of the new defaults came from the 2005-2007 period when CMBS originations peaked.
