Asian debt capital markets flourish

Augusto King

We have seen another year of record debt issuance in Asia. Why
Debt issuance has already exceeded $100 billion, compared to $73 billion in 2011. There are several reasons for this record volume. First, the European debt crisis reduced banking exposure to Asian corporates. Corporates therefore need to borrow from regional and local banks, or issue bonds in the capital markets. Local borrowers have asked for US dollar funding from their local banks as a result, their banks must issue international bonds to obtain such funding.

This is augmented by strong general market conditions where global investors...