The New York Federal Reserve Bank received requests for nearly $72.25m of federal loans to purchase new issuance commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS). The requests arrived under the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) for new CMBS. The first round of bids submitted for new CMBS confirms industry reports that new issuance would see a revival through the program this month. The legacy CMBS TALF program also received loan requests this week, as prospective investors asked for nearly $1.42bn of loans to buy up legacy CMBS. It marks a slight drop from last month’s facility, which brought in $2.12bn of requests. The Federal Reserve initiated the TALF program to stimulate lending by allowing private investors to purchase securities with a matching government investment. The reach of the program into legacy CMBS aimed to aid price discovery and provide liquidity for the commercial mortgage market, which faces a credit crisis of its own. For months, the new issue CMBS-eligible TALF program was expected to stir up activity on the new issuance side, but November marks the first month the NY Fed received requests for loans to invest in both new and legacy CMBS. Write to Diana Golobay.