Borrowers look to private placements as substitute for bank lending

An inevitable consequence of the financial crisis was that banks across Europe put up the shutters in terms of loan origination; and not just to smaller and medium-sized companies. Even solid investment grade names, who had got used to banks offering them massive loan facilities at single digit spreads in the heady, pre-crisis days, found that credit lines were either not renewed, or the terms of them had become far less favourable.

The political rhetoric coming from governments for banks to