Defaults to peak at 10%-15%, say EuroWeek readers

Leveraged loan default rates could peak at 10-15% throughout the downturn, according to the majority of voters in EuroWeek’s latest online poll. But while 58% of readers thought that default rates would be high, only 25% predicted that they would be above 15%. Clearly no-one is under the illusion that they won’t rise, however — for the first time since we’ve been running the polls, we had zero votes in one category, which was that default rates wouldn’t rise to higher than 5%. Tell us what you think about this week's question: Is the loan market still underpriced?