Gloom and doom for 2009 spells end of loan market boom

Optimism about whether the loan market will recover in the New Year is not — to put it mildly — riding high. The vast majority — 68% — of readers who voted in EuroWeek’s latest loans poll, say that borrowers will have to wait a lot longer than January 2009 to be able to access debt easily again. With refinancing pressures continuing to mount, as ratings agency Standard & Poor’s warned last week, the result paints a bleak picture for European companies.