When 8,000 industry professionals gathered at ABS East in Miami, one theme dominated the conversation: asset servicing has evolved from a back-office function into your first line of defense. As Concord's Shaun O'Neill put it, "Recent market events have revealed that a critical blind spot across asset-backed financing is that servicing is no longer a back-office function. It's your first line of defense." Recent bankruptcies and fraud cases have exposed critical vulnerabilities, forcing the industry to rethink how we approach servicing, oversight, and risk mitigation.
In a recent LinkedIn Live discussion, Concord executives Shaun O’Neill and Tom Myers joined Nicole Byrns, industry veteran and Partner at Dumar Capital Partners, to discuss the key takeaways from ABS East and recent events and break down what they mean for the future of asset servicing.
The conversations throughout ABS East consistently returned to three interconnected fundamentals:
Data Quality and Accessibility forms the foundation. It's not enough to collect data, you need to know it's accurate, timely, and accessible to all stakeholders. How is information flowing from originators to servicers to trustees to reporting agencies? Who's validating it and how frequently? You cannot have effective oversight without reliable data.
Compliance Framework addresses the infrastructure question. Modern servicing goes far beyond billing and payment processing, it's active asset management designed to optimize performance. Robust compliance frameworks ensure that consumer protection requirements are met while maintaining the integrity of the asset portfolio.
Oversight Responsibility ties everything together. The key insight from ABS East is that oversight works best as a shared responsibility across all parties - originators, investors, banks, trustees, servicers, and backup servicing providers must collaborate rather than operate in silos.
One question arose during their discussion: Does the industry need new terminology to reflect the evolving reality of what backup servicing actually entails? As Nicole Byrns stated, "Backup is a misnomer. It's not backup, it's not an insurance policy. It's day-to-day active management of the portfolio." The traditional term suggests a passive approach, but effective portfolio protection requires active management, not a reactive emergency response.
This approach includes collecting and mapping data in real-time, analyzing quality and frequency, running T-Val reports, managing lien perfection (including UCC filings and titles), monitoring trigger events proactively, and maintaining robust successor servicing agreements. Whether you call it shadow servicing, credit administration, or fund administration, the function represents an overarching portfolio management strategy that demands expertise, not checkbox compliance.
Not all assets are created equal, and effective servicing requires deep knowledge of specific asset characteristics. Solar portfolios have unique structures spanning loans, leases, and PPAs. Subprime auto requires repossession and remarketing capabilities. Title-light assets like power sports and RVs demand different approaches than unsecured marketplace lending.
As Tom Myers noted, "If you have a relationship with a servicing company, they should know and understand that asset in particular. You can't have somebody on the back end that doesn't know and understand your asset and how to service that." Generic servicing capabilities won't cut it. Your servicing partner needs demonstrated experience with your specific asset class, including the systems, software, and customer service approaches that drive optimal performance.
Artificial intelligence and advanced analytics are revolutionizing verification and oversight. Where servicers once had to sample portfolios for quality checks, modern technology enables 100% verification of entire loan books quickly and efficiently.
Recent market examples underscore this capability. Analytics firms identified troubling payment trends months before broader market awareness, but those signals went unheeded. The tools to catch problems early exist—the question is whether organizations are using them effectively and acting on what the data reveals.
An emerging trend is platform-level servicing rather than fragmented deal-by-deal arrangements. Some originators have five or six different backup servicing relationships across various parties, a structure that's neither efficient nor optimal for oversight.
The alternative is consolidated servicing across all asset classes for a single client, providing unified visibility, streamlined reporting, and integrated custodial and verification services. This approach creates clearer accountability, better data flow, and more effective risk management across entire portfolios.
The industry is moving away from passive, reactive approaches toward proactive, collaborative partnerships where all stakeholders work together with transparency and aligned incentives. The organizations that will thrive in 2026 and beyond are those embracing servicing as a strategic function, investing in technology and specialized expertise, and prioritizing early intervention over crisis management.
Whether you're managing primary servicing, implementing credit administration, or seeking fund-level oversight, the fundamentals remain the same: know your data, maintain compliance, and exercise meaningful oversight through experienced partners who understand your specific assets.
Watch the full conversation and dive deeper into each key takeaway on our YouTube page.
As a leading servicer with more than 35 years of experience across multiple asset classes, Concord Servicing delivers the expertise, technology, and collaborative approach that today's market demands. We're not just a service provider—we're a partner in your success. To discuss how we can support your servicing needs, contact us at (866) 493-6393 or bd@concordservicing.com.