NEW YORK CITY—A pickup in CMBS issuance in the latter part of the year is one of the primary factors behind a continued improvement in the delinquency rate for securitized commercial mortgages. Morningstar Credit Ratings LLC said Monday that September's late-pay rate slipped eight basis points to 2.94%, marking the third consecutive month of declines in the delinquency rate for CMBS. Fitch Ratings told broadly the same story earlier this month, as did Trepp LLC in reporting the September numbers.

September saw the unpaid balance of delinquent CMBS sink to a 16-month low of $22.65 billion, down $211.0 million from the prior month, and down $446.0 million, or 1.9%, from the year-earlier period, according to Morningstar. The volume of newly delinquent loans remained below $1.50 billion for the second consecutive month, registering $1.49 billion, up marginally from $1.42 billion the prior month.

Morningstar says it believes the delinquency rate will hold below 3.0% after reaching an 18-month high of 3.19% in June. “There are fewer securitized commercial mortgages left that we expect will default at maturity, resolutions remain high and issuance has picked up,” according to Morningstar's report.