Three bank failures barely cool demand for riskiest lender debt

London

BUYERS of the riskiest bank bonds, who witnessed three failures last month, are proving to be a resilient bunch.

HSBC Holdings sold so-called additional Tier 1 notes with a record-low coupon last week, capping the busiest quarter for AT1 sales by European banks in more than two years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Risky bank debt also returned 9.4 per cent in the first half, compared with a loss of 2 per cent in the same period a year earlier, based on Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data.