Bankers, regulators voice fears about bond market

WALL STREET chieftains, huge investment firms and top bank regulators are all sounding the same alarm. In recent months, they have been warning that the world's bond markets, where companies and countries borrow trillions of dollars, are in danger of breaking down.

Their fear is that in an event like a surprise increase in interest rates, trading could rapidly dry up, causing violent movements in bond prices and even disrupting the functioning of the market. According to this view, the destabilising volatility in the bond market could make it harder and more expensive for companies and countries to borrow.

With the Federal Reserve contemplating a rise in interest rates, turbulence in European bond prices and currency markets in flux, there is no shortage of places where the next jolt could come from.