Global bond issuance heading for a record year

London

BUSINESSES and financial companies continue to take advantage of investors' desperation for yield and are issuing record numbers of bonds.

In the first quarter of this year US$777 billion of investment grade, lower quality and junk bonds were issued compared with a whopping US$2.49 trillion in the whole of 2014. In 2013, US$1.97 trillion of bonds were issued to investors while in 2012 the figure was US$1.95 trillion.

Illustrating the extent of the boom - boosted by the European Central Bank's quantitative easing, a s…