The delinquency rate on commercial mortgage-backed securities increased 5 basis points to 9.39% in February, the smallest monthly gain since the financial crisis in 2008, according to analytics firm Trepp. The U.S. CMBS delinquency rate is still rising nonetheless, with the percentage of loans 30+ days delinquent, in foreclosure or REO climbing 5 basis points to 9.39% — the highest in history for U.S. securitized commercial real estate loans, according to the firm. Exposure to commercial lending, not residential, is proving to be the deepest problem for failed banks in 2011. For those that failed in February, nearly two-thirds of all nonperforming loans were written in commercial sectors. However, as delinquencies begin to slow in legacy CMBS loans, more deals are coming onto the market in an issuance surge analysts at Standard & Poor’s are calling CMBS 2.0. But even though increases are slowing, the amount of CMBS loans 30-days delinquent, in foreclosure or REO is still the highest in history. The rate increased nearly three percentage points since the 6.72% rate Trepp reported in February 2009. It averaged a 23.8 bps uptick every month since if the giant foreclosures of Stuyvesant Town in March and the Extended Stay Hotels in October. The percentage of CMBS loans in serious delinquency, 60 days or more, stood at 8.75% in February, a 16 bps increase from the month before. “Despite improvement, the multifamily sector remains the worst performing major property type,” Trepp said. The delinquency rate for multifamily dropped 24 bps to 16.6% in February, followed by a 15% delinquency rate in the lodging sector and 10.4% for industrial loans. Write to Jon Prior. Follow him on Twitter: @JonAPrior