BANKING REGULATIONS RELATING TO COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE
Commercial Real Estate (CRE) loans are one of the largest asset types on most bank balance sheets.  It is not uncommon for a bank to have more than 500.0 percent of its capital in CRE loans.  Over the past 15 years this has created concerns for regulators.  In the early 1990's CRE loan losses were blamed for many of the bank failures in the U.S.  Since then, banks have improved their underwriting and monitoring of CRE loans.  Regulators also have better tools to monitor and oversee CRE concentrations in banks. Regulators, however, continue to have concerns about CRE concentrations.  In response to their concerns, the primary financial institution regulators issued a Supervisory Letter that addresses Sound Risk Management Practices for CRE lending.    

FRB Handbook for Commercial Examinations    
Scroll to Section 2103 in the Handbook for "Concentrations in CRE Lending, Sound Risk Management Practices"