Next year is shaping up to be a pivotal one for the future of the Common Securitization Platform and the issuance of the single security by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Commercial real estate markets should continue to improve in 2017, though it remains to be seen how big of a role mortgage bonds will play in financing going forward.

Merchant banking firm Opus Bank completed a $509 million securitization of its multifamily loans through a Freddie Mac-sponsored “Q-deal” risk-transfer securitization, the company announced Tuesday.

A decade ago, regulators were warning that CRE exposure could lead to earnings and capital volatility. Fast forward to today and regulators are expressing similar reservations, warning that areas such as multifamily could become problematic. Bankers, however, say they believe the industry is better equipped to handle an economic shock.

Although subprime auto lending and securitization bear similarly troubling signs to the pre-crisis housing market, they clearly do not contain the macroeconomic risks posed by the mortgage industry nearly a decade ago. But investors may still not be in the clear.

In case you haven’t been keeping track, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded about half of the guaranteed student loan bonds that it had put under review this year.

Deutsche Bank AG and Credit Suisse Group AG agreed to pay a combined $12.5 billion to resolve U.S. investigations into sales of the toxic debt that fueled the financial crisis, putting behind them a major dispute that undermined confidence in the banks and raised questions about their turnarounds.

Issuance volume of asset-backed securities for the year through December 23, 2016.

Underwriting league tables for asset-backed securities for the year through December 23, 2016.

President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday tapped the billionaire investor Carl Icahn to be a special adviser on regulatory reform.

Issuance of U.S. collateralized loan obligations is likely to get off to a slow start in 2017.

Freddie Mac has moved from transferring the credit risk on newly originated loans to older loans that have been modified in order to avoid default.