CEO MessageThank you for your interest in Dexia. There are three strengths that distinguish Dexia from other conduit lenders—our people, our relationships and our integrity.Our People Dexia Real Estate Capital Markets, formerly Artesia, was formed over ten years ago as a subsidiary of a Belgian bank. A core team spent the early years initiating relationships, developing our commercial lending platform and building the financial engineering and securitization framework that is the cornerstone of our business. At the same time, we added the right people to the team—experienced commercial real estate professionals, as well as specialists in finance, accounting, loan servicing and information technology. Meanwhile, commercial real estate lending has changed dramatically over the last decade. We had to change along with it. This meant that our employees needed to draw upon their knowledge and experience while remaining open to new developments. Many of our employees had to re-invent themselves to adjust to the realities of the real-estate debt capital markets. No doubt about it, Dexia's employees are the foundation of our enterprise. Their transformation has been our transformation. Our Relationships A major contribution to our recent success has been the strength of our relationships. We pride ourselves on our European banking roots and the many relationships our parent company has, some spanning more than a century. We have grown our company by establishing and maintaining relationships with borrowers and mortgage bankers in every market we serve. Our clients benefit from these relationships. Over the past few years, we’ve consistently upgraded our communication, shortened our underwriting cycles and improved our customer service. Our customers tell us what they like, what we do well and where we can improve. We listen. We see the effects in the rise in volume and market share. And more importantly, we’ve experienced growth in the number of repeat borrowers. Over 80% of our annual volume is now derived from repeat customers. Our Integrity We strive to create a culture that asks, “How can we make this deal work?” A daily origination meeting gives our team the opportunity to review any deal that merits special consideration. Senior executives ask questions to understand critical issues on each loan presented. This environment promotes buy-in from all relevant parts of the organization before a loan application leaves the office. The result dramatically reduces the likelihood of unexpected surprises late in the underwriting process. Beyond the process, our goal is a simple one: to do what we say we’ll do. You tell us what you want and give us full disclosure of the relevant issues. And then we tell you what we can do. That’s certainty of execution. Ultimately, I know that Dexia is doing things right. We’re growing by making a conscious effort to be better at this business than our competition. Our commercial real estate lending experience is all about being more. More personal. More communicative. More creative. More respectful. More valuable. I look forward to helping you take advantage of our strengths to achieve your real estate vision. Sincerely,  Guy Cools |