KBRA Releases Research – Auto Loan ABS: Working Through the Liquidation Backlog KBRA Releases Research – Auto Loan ABS: Working Through the Liquidation Backlog Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) releases research which examines the liquidation backlog taking place in auto loan ABS. While the prevailing belief in the market seems to peg higher used car values as the reason for the elevated recovery rates seen across most securitized auto loan pools since the start of the, an analysis of the loan-level data suggests this may not be the main cause. Instead, repossession moratoriums have led to longer-than-usual recovery lags for loans that were charged off in the early months of the pandemic. As a result, vehicle liquidations were delayed until later in the summer and fall, leading to inflated aggregate recovery rates during those months.