Leveraged finance (LevFin) issuance across the US and European institutional loan and high-yield (HY) bond markets totalled USD 1.36tn in the first nine months of 2025, nearly matching the USD 1.39tn raised in 9M24.

Strong market activity in the third quarter boosted year-to-date (YTD) volumes, offsetting the slump in loan and bond issuance that followed US President Trump’s sweeping tariff announcement on 2 April.

After the initial sell-off in global capital markets and a sharp widening of credit spreads, investor sentiment improved as Trump announced a 90-day tariff reprieve for non-retaliating countries on 9 April and later de-escalated trading tensions with China in May, while better-than-expected macroeconomic indicators further supported risk appetite.

In step, LevFin market activity started accelerating in May, underpinned by a simultaneous rebound in collateralised loan obligation (CLO) issuance and the resumption of inflows into HY funds.

Leveraged loan and HY bond issuance continued to thrive in the subsequent months, with many borrowers fast-tracking their financing plans to capitalise on a favourable window and tightening spreads.

To review further analysis from our report including:

• US and EU leveraged finance volume
• Leveraged loan margins
• New issue HY yields
• Secondary bond yields and loan bids
• CLO issuance
• Leading sectors by volume: US and Europe