Issuance of debt by banks at lowest level in a decade

The Financial Times reports that issuance of debt by banks is at the lowest level in a decade.  Particularly hard hit has been unsecured bank lending.

Regular readers know that since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2007, market participants have been unable to determine which banks are solvent and which banks are not.  As a result, the unsecured bank debt market is effectively frozen and the secured bank debt market is slowly freezing over.

Bond issuance by banks is at its lowest level in a decade... 

Global debt issuance by banks stands at $1.26 trillion – the lowest since 2002 – according to figures from Dealogic, the data provider. 

The amount of senior unsecured debt, a mainstay of bank funding, is at its lowest since 2003. 

Issuance of covered bonds – debt secured against pools of loans that carries an additional bank guarantee – has also fallen, and the total raised via asset-backed securities continues to be a fraction of pre-subprime crisis levels....