One of the greatest fears plaguing the current crisis was corporate financing capacity in light of the low risk appetite on the part of investors and the obligation banks were facing to limit the size of their balance sheets and build up their capital to overcome the past and future deterioration of the quality of their assets.

The contraction in demand for loans linked to the economic slowdown (decline in consumption and investments) and the re-orientation of bank balance sheets towards loans would not have helped avoid a major financing crisis if access to the bond market had remained closed, all the more so as debt securitisation options remained very limited. But corporate financing capacity on the bond market has exceeded all expectations.

The first signs observed in November 2008, which recorded 25 billion in bond issues, were more than confirmed in January 2009, when non-financial companies in various activity sectors and with varying levels of creditworthiness succeeded in obtaining EUR 48.5 billion. This is the highest volume since the euro market was created (total issues of EUR 120 billion in 2008).

This extremely positive trend can be attributed to very strong demand not only from conventional investors (insurance companies, pension funds, bond fund managers), but also from diversified and equity funds and individual investors, thus marking the return of risk appetite and the search for returns. By way of example, the latest issue for RWE, run by Société Générale, for EUR 3 billion, generated a demand of EUR 14 billion.

This explosion in volumes was also made possible because companies had realised that loans had become rare and expensive, and that they were better off agreeing to pay higher yields to bondholders. This certainly offers a reason to be relatively optimistic for the credit market in 2009, despite the expected (but largely anticipated) rise in defaults.