Risky and complex US loan wagers are hot

New York

ASIA'S yield-hungry investors have a lot riding on the financial engineers of Wall Street.

Faced with near record-low interest rates at home, money managers in Korea, Japan and China have been piling into complex and increasingly risky structured loan products in America. Their investments in collateralised loan obligations (CLO) - including the high-yield "equity" tranches most exposed to defaults - have helped drive a doubling of issuance in 2017.