Speakers at this year’s ABS East conference — held online — focused on how the coronavirus impacted assets and the outlook for 2021.

Investors helped nonbank servicers with their advancing obligations for delinquent mortgages this year, but the outlook is murky.

The use of LIBOR as an index is slated to end in just under 13 months but the benchmark administrator has other ideas. One issue: legacy contracts.

Performance on non-agency MBS has improved after the spike in late payments seen in the spring. However, borrowers who are still delinquent could prompt losses for investors.

Fed by massive originations of agency-eligible mortgages, the securitization rate rose 5.1 percentage points to 80.4% in the third quarter of 2020. That's the highest it's been since 2013. (Includes data chart.)

Three new non-agency MBS were introduced in the market recently. Two of the deals are backed by mortgages for investment properties.

As president, Joe Biden will have to negotiate with both sides of Congress, limiting sweeping policy changes, according to industry analysts.

Securitization of non-qualified mortgages is generating healthy profits. However, issuers face a dilemma: Originations of the product have slowed.

With a relatively high share of borrowers missing mortgage payments, investors in non-agency MBS are seeing reduced cash flows and, in some cases, losses. Though mortgage performance is improving, the outlook for investors remains uncertain.