...Bond Issuance at High Level: Bonds accounted for almost 40% of total new debt (bonds and syndicated loans) taken up by European companies in 1H15, as funding disintermediation becomes more firmly established in the region, and moves into line with the US model of corporate funding. Rising Economic Importance of Bonds: Balance sheets tell an even more dramatic story about the loans-to-bonds trend. Bottom-up analysis of 227 companies over five years by Fitch Ratings reveals that the economic importance of bonds is twice as high as indicated by new issuance volumes. Bonds have taken a rising share of corporate debt since the global financial crisis, now accounting for an average 82% of the total debt of sizeable western European corporates. ECB QE2 Stokes Bonds: Easy post-crisis monetary policy has helped make bonds a low-cost funding option. The potential for non-financial corporate bonds to be added to the ECB's purchase programme later this year extends the support for European bonds. Bank...
