Wednesday, December 23, 2020 The "Securitization Disclosure and Document Updates for 2020 and 2021" panel featured Structured Finance and Securitization partners Prachi Gokhale, Christina Burgess, Josh Yablonski and Joe Topolski and was moderated by partner John Keiserman. The discussion ranged from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the structured finance industry, to the eventual cessation and replacement of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), and concluded with an outlook to recent securities law changes that will affect offerings in 2021 and beyond. Here are the top five takeaways from the panel. Impact of COVID-19 on Risk Factors The COVID-19 pandemic has had a far-reaching impact on the disclosure for asset-backed securities offerings and has brought about several changes throughout the year, in particular to the disclosed risk factors. Most issuers prominently featured pandemic-specific risk factors in their disclosure documents, which focused on the uncertainty brought about by the pandemic. These risk factors were both general, covering macroeconomic trends such as unprecedented unemployment and an anemic economy, and industry-specific, covering legislation adopted to offset the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the underlying securitized collateral and obligors. In particular, the panel discussed challenges for servicers of the underlying assets. Servicers found their ability to collect on the underlying assets impaired by legislative moratoriums preventing repossession of the securitized assets for delinquent payments, and many implemented self-imposed obligor relief programs, including voluntary loan deferrals and other hardship extensions. The risk factors covering the macroeconomic implications of the pandemic will likely remain in the disclosure documents in the near term, as the country continues to grapple with additional waves of the virus and the uncertainty surrounding further federal relief plans. However, the industry-specific risk factors remain fluid and many have been removed altogether or updated to reflect the evolving legislative requirements and obligor relief programs.