The Federal Reserve is currently reviewing banks' exposure to property, the troubled investment sector whose slide could pose a risk to many financial institutions because of the wide distribution of loans and mortgage-backed securities.

In its regulatory role, the Fed will look into a cross-section of banks to build a picture of how resilient institutions are to the falling value of loans and commercial mortgage-backed securities.

A cross-disciplinary team will look at the range of commercial property assets on banks' balance sheets, encompassing loans and CMBS.......