‘Worst is to come’ post-recession for commercial mortgages says Metlife exec: report

“The worst is to come,” CIO Steven Kandarian said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in New York. “typically there’s a lag between when the economy softens and when defaults actually occur.”

Kandarian said his company’s delinquencies will be small.

“Like all firms that hold these kind of mortgages, we’ll have some issues,” he said.

Metlife – which also runs a retail bank – underwrote its loans “very carefully” to minimize the risk of losing principal and expects to fund more mortgages as competitors bow out of the market, he told Bloomberg.