Conditions in the residential mortgage-backed securities market were strong in 2013 and are set to continue on the same course this year, according to one of the industry's leading dealmakers.Commonwealth Bank's head of debt market securitisation, Robert Verlander, said there was unmet demand for product.With about A$31 billion of asset-backed securities issued by Australian lenders last year ($25 billion of it RMBS), 2013 was the best year for the securitisation market since the pre-crisis peak in 2007.Issuance has been steady so far this year and has been marked by a tightening of margins of around five to 10 basis points.Verlander, who was speaking at the Asia-Pacific Banking & Finance mortgage innovation forum on Wednesday, said the market offered issuers and investors stability and predictability.Resimac's executive director of securitisation, Mary Ploughman, said the company was confident about its funding, and this meant it could be more aggressive with its growth targets for mortgage sales.JP Morgan banking analyst Scott Manning said that, with top tranches of RMBS issues pricing at 80 to 95 basis points over the bank bill swap rate, margins were well inside what he considered the break-even point for issuers: 120 bps over the swap rate."A recovery in the RMBS market is allowing the first signs of renewed competition from this sector to emerge," Manning said in JP Morgan's Australian mortgage industry report, released this week.Another speaker at the AB+F forum, Deloitte partner Graham Mott, said RMBS market conditions were giving non-bank lenders a funding advantage over lenders relying on high-cost deposits.Verlander added that issuers could not be complacent. They had to consider offering US dollar tranches to appeal to the US money market and fixed rate tranches for fixed income funds.