Residential Funding Corp. led a sluggish subprime securities market to the wire in 2000, a new Inside MBS & ABS ranking of the top issuers reveals. But while volume lagged badly behind even the tepid pace that securitizers set in 1999, last year was anything but unremarkable. Overall, $55.94 billion in securities backed by subprime mortgages were issued during 2000, a down year for subprime originations. That was the lowest level since 1996, when a