A hawkish Federal Reserve is narrowing the window on trades that some U.S. regional banks have been hoping to use to reduce their commercial real estate exposure, investors, analysts and lawyers said. Banks, particularly small regional and community banks, have looked to trim their outsized exposure to CRE on rising default risks after a post-pandemic social behavior change led to an increase in office vacancies and sharp drop in property valuations. Since the bank collapses last March, some regional lenders have sold billions of dollars of loans to private investors to reduce risk and shore up liquidity.