In addition to the improved property fundamentals, for the last several years, the U.S. commercial and multifamily mortgage market has experienced historically low interest rates, leading many borrowers to seek refinancing prior to the scheduled maturity date of their loans. As borrowers have sought to take advantage of the interest rate environment and improved property fundamentals, the number of lenders and amount of capital available to lend have increased dramati-cally. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, commercial and multifamily loan maturities are expected to in-crease dramatically through the end of 2017, as the loans originated at the height of the CMBS market begin maturing a decade later. All of these factors have benefited our origination and investment sales volumes over the past several quarters. Competition among commercial real estate services firms, banks, life insurance companies, and the GSEs remains fierce.

During the fourth quarter of 2016, the Federal Reserve raised its targeted Fed Funds Rate by another 25 basis points and suggested that it is likely going to increase its targeted Fed Funds Rate during 2017. We have not experienced a significant decline in origination volume or profitability as a result of the increases as long-term mortgage interest rates generally remained at historically low levels during the majority of 2016. Long-term mortgage interest rates did increase significantly during the last two months of 2016, largely due to the anticipation of a rate increase by the Federal Reserve and the results of the 2016 Presidential Election. However, even the sharp increase in long-term mortgage interest rates did not appear to adversely impact our loan origination volumes. We cannot be certain that trend will continue as the number, timing, and magnitude of any future increases by the Federal Reserve, taken together with previous interest rate increases and combined with other macroeconomic factors, may have a different effect on the commercial real estate market.

Late in the second quarter of 2016, citizens of the United Kingdom (“U.K.”) voted to exit the European Union (“E.U.”), an action commonly referred to as “Brexit.” The referendum itself has not resulted in the U.K.’s immediate exodus from the E.U. since the vote was not legally binding on the British government. Rather, Parliament, having heard the voice of voters, may now enact laws to facilitate the U.K.’s departure and must notify the European Commission of its intention to leave the E.U. Legislation to effect the departure has been passed by the lower house of Parliament. Many observers anticipate that the U.K. will invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty in the first half of 2017 to leave the E.U. After such notice is provided, the U.K. and European Commission will have a two-year window in which to establish the terms of the U.K.’s departure. Even though the process of separating from the E.U. will take several years, Brexit has created a significant amount of uncertainty in both the global and domestic financial markets as participants have evaluated the impact Brexit may have on the global and domestic economies.

Brexit has had minimal impact on our operations and financial results as we have no direct exposure to the U.K. or E.U. Additionally, we believe the indirect impact of Brexit likely benefitted us during the second half of 2016 as borrowers took advantage of low mortgage interest rates and as a “flight to safety” resulted in an increase of global capital investments in U.S. markets, including commercial real estate, resulting in higher loan origination and investment sales activity. Some of these benefits may be mitigated by higher credit risk spreads demanded by investors in commercial real estate loans going forward. We believe these indirect impacts will largely continue in the near term (although potentially partially or completely mitigated by the aforementioned increase in interest rates due to the actions of the Federal Reserve and the results of the 2016 Presidential Election) but are uncertain about the long-term duration.

We are a market-leading originator with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the GSEs remain the most significant providers of capital to the multifamily market. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (“FHFA”) 2017 GSE Scorecard (“2017 Scorecard”) established Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s 2017 loan origination caps at \$36.5 billion each for market-rate apartments (“2017 Caps”), the same as the final 2016 loan origination caps (the 2016 loan origination caps began the year at \$31.0 billion each, but were adjusted by the FHFA twice during 2016 to a final amount of \$36.5 billion each). Affordable housing loans, loans to small multifamily properties, and manufactured housing rental community loans continue to be excluded from the 2017 Caps. Additionally, the definition of the affordable loan exclusion continues to encompass affordable housing in high- and very-high cost markets and to allow for an exclusion from the 2017 Caps for the pro-rata portion of any loan on a multifamily property that includes affordable units. The 2017 Scorecard provides the FHFA the flexibility to review the estimated size of the multifamily loan origination market on a quarterly basis and proactively adjust the 2017 Caps upward should the market be larger than expected in 2017 (as noted above, the FHFA adjusted the caps upward twice in 2016). The 2017 Scorecard also provides exclusions for loans to properties located in