CWCapital is a leader in the commercial real estate lending business, having maintained a continuous presence in the market for more than a decade, offering both securitized and balance sheet financing. In 1992, we were one of the first conduit lenders in the country, and in 1997 established our own commercial conduit program utilizing discretionary capital to quote, underwrite, commit, close and service loans for all commercial and multifamily product types. With a core of veteran loan structuring and underwriting professionals, we continue to be one of the most experienced and well regarded conduit lenders - with a tradition of capital markets expertise and an aptitude for creative financing and loan structuring that we believe is unmatched in the industry.
Today, CWCapital offers a vertically integrated platform that combines the approach of a portfolio lender with the benefits of participating in the Capital Markets. For virtually all Capital Markets deals we are the lender, B Piece buyer, and controlling class servicer. As such, we offer much more certainty of execution than our competitors. More importantly, we retain Primary and Special Servicing throughout the life of the loan, allowing us to be highly responsive on major servicing decisions such as assumptions and lease approvals. CW's Capital Markets group offers the most competitive spreads and terms available and typically closes loans in 30 to 90 days.
In 2005 and 2006, CW created and launched the COBALT series of CDOs. These CDOs were extremely well received in the market and unique in structure. They provided an in-house vertical integration strategy for flexible, creative structures for floating-rate loans originated and serviced via the CWCapital lending platform. To further enhance our vertically integrated lending platform, we launched our own SEC-registered shelf for conduit loans. This was done by sponsoring our own REMIC securitizations under the COBALT brand, thus becoming an active issuer of publicly traded CMBS backed by fixed-rate commercial loans originated and serviced by CWCapital.