The commercial MBS market is facing a new challenge as questions have been raised about the “true sale” treatment of these transactions under generally accepted accounting principles. The issue arises from risk-retention requirements that went into effect in late 2016. “Failure of accounting sale treatment means the selling bank cannot book the gain and does not derecognize the underlying loans resulting in the entire portfolio of loans remaining on its balance sheet for both GAAP and presumably, for risk based capital purposes,” according to the Dechert law firm. In order to benefit from an accounting true sale, each third-party holder of a beneficial interest in the securitization must have...