09 July 2012 7:00am

In a sign of the secular shift in the functioning of the capital market, at least in Europe, Fitch Ratings has observed that corporate bond issuance exceeded banks loans in the first six months of 2012.

European corporates raised €467 billion of debt funding in the first six months of the year. Corporate bond issuance accounted for 52 per cent of the funding compared with 29 per cent in 2011.

Fitch said the level of corporate bond funding in 2011 was in line with the annual average since the introduction of the euro.

Two Australian names selling term debt in the...