Issues

Falling interest rates, returning inflows and a wave of pandemic-era redemptions mean CEEMEA bond market participants have high expectations for 2026. This optimism comes after a record-breaking year for issuance — and by quite some margin — meaning that 2025 will be a tough act to follow, writes George Collard

Geopolitical uncertainty because of US tariff policy and regional conflicts, and private credit’s incursion into investment grade lending did their best to disrupt the syndicated loan market in 2025. But bankers say investment by the technology sector, in particular, means 2026 is poised to be a more ‘meaningful year’. Jenn Law reports

Record euro issuance cost issuers slimmer new issue premiums than before as a wave of Reverse Yankee issuance, much of it to fund technology and artificial intelligence infrastructure, and a softer sterling market defined Europe’s investment grade corporate bond market in 2025, writes Diana Bui

A booming 2025 investment grade corporate bond market in Europe set a high bar as investors brace to pay higher premiums and shift to the belly of the curve in 2026. Meanwhile, capex, M&A and Reverse Yankees look set to keep the pipeline full, write Diana Bui and Frank Jackman

Single asset, single borrower deals drove the US CMBS market in 2025, particularly on New York City collateral as office attendance rose. With interest rates predicted to fall further in 2026, market participants are looking forward to a greater variety of deals on commercial real estate from other cities and sectors, writes Pooja Sarkar

Rising aircraft values and higher re-leasing costs caused by a supply shortage are expected to tip cash into aviation ABS and entice debut issuers in 2026. As cash runs down the waterfall, sales of equity notes tied to aviation lease ABS may return, writes Chadwick Van Estrop

Unparalleled European CLO market activity in 2025 compressed spreads and raised the possibility of a bigger standard for benchmark size. But, as Thomas Hopkins reports, leveraged loan market volatility will increasingly lead to tiering in the pricing different managers can achieve

The conditions are set so that 2026 promises to be even better than the already impressive 2025. A deepening of esoteric asset classes, combined with entirely new deal types, as well as more debut issuers are set to be the key themes, writes Tom Hall

The euro covered bond market shook off a volatile end to 2024 to rebound with a raft of exceptionally popular deals in 2025. Investors appeared eager to pile into euro covered bond books this year, propelling bid-to-cover ratios upwards and new issue premium downwards, writes Frank Jackman

Covered bond funders will have to weave their way through tight senior unsecured and wide SSA spreads in 2026 if they are to refinance the wave of redemptions that awaits them. One big question for the year ahead, discovers Frank Jackman, is whether issuers will be tempted to pay up for duration

Issuers had it almost all their own way in the European FIG market in 2025. Investor appetite for credit far outstripped supply, causing spreads to tighten along with the average new issue premium on syndicated benchmark-sized deals. Flynn Nicholls reports on the dynamics that shaped the primary market

The European FIG market rode through 2025 on high demand for credit, providing bank issuers, large and small, with extremely advantageous funding conditions. Although investors have also benefitted from strong secondary market performance, as Atanas Dinov reports, that equilibrium may change in 2026, with anticipation mounting that spreads will widen