Pillar Financial, a division of SunTrust Bank (NYSE: STI), announced today that it has been approved as a Fannie Mae Seniors Housing Lender through the Delegated Underwriting and Servicing (DUS) program. This designation allows the firm to originate both fixed and floating rate, long-term acquisition and refinancing loans for independent living, assisted living and memory care properties.

“Our clients now have access to the Fannie Mae DUS program to invest in the growing senior housing marketspace, a critical tool that I believe is one of the most efficient in the industry for securing capital,” said Edward Hussey, CCIM, Senior Vice President and Head of Multifamily Production for Pillar. “We look forward to delivering this capability to our clients and quickly growing our Fannie Mae direct lending business across the seniors and healthcare marketplace.”

Pillar, an industry leader of financing solutions for affordable and market rate multifamily and healthcare properties, is also an FHA-approved lender, authorized to originate HUD-insured financing to finance for assisted living and memory care facilities. Pillar’s platform offers a variety of financing solutions to investors, owners and operators located across the country. This new Fannie Mae designation coupled with the deep industry knowledge of SunTrust Commercial Banking’s Aging Services Industry Specialty Group, expands the capability set available to the company’s clients across the country.

“The demographics of this sector are compelling, and we are seeing many of our institutional clients allocate capital focused on senior housing,” said Anand Gajjar, business head for the Pillar division. “As one of the largest providers of financing for affordable housing, it is a natural extension of our business to now focus on the market rate side, and we sought this designation.”

About Pillar

As a division of SunTrust Bank, a subsidiary of SunTrust Banks, Inc. (NYSE: STI), Pillar is part of the SunTrust Commercial Real Estate (CRE) line of business, which is part of SunTrust’s Wholesale Banking Segment. Pillar is a direct lender for multifamily, manufactured housing and healthcare prwww.pillarfinance.com.

About SunTrust Banks, Inc.

SunTrust Banks, Inc. is a purpose-driven company dedicated to Lighting the Way to Financial Well-Being for the people, businesses, and communities it serves. Headquartered in Atlanta, SunTrust operates an extensive branch and ATM network throughout the high-growth Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states, along with 24-hour digital access. Certain business lines serve consumer, commercial, corporate, and institutional clients nationally. As of June 30, 2017, SunTrust had total assets of $207 billion and total deposits of $160 billion. The Company provides deposit, credit, trust, investment, mortgage, asset management, securities brokerage, and capital market services. Member FDIC. SunTrust leads onUp, a national movement inspiring Americans to build financial confidence. Join the movement at onUp.com.