Banks seen fuelling UK commercial property risks with loose loan security

London

BANKS are relaxing safeguards as they boost lending to commercial-property developers in the UK, fuelling concern that they are sowing the seeds of another real estate collapse.

"Banks are falling into that same old cycle of loosening their underwriting standards," Joe Valente, head of research and strategy at JPMorgan Asset Management in London, said in an interview. "They're doubling up on risk because they're increasing development activity in smaller regional markets which, until now, have had very little in the way of liquidity."