Corporate bonds and loans are at the centre of a new financial scare

OVER THE past decade officials—and some bankers—have tried to redesign the financial system so that it acts as a buffer that absorbs economic shocks rather than as an amplifier that makes things worse. It faces a stern test from the covid-19 virus and the economic ruptures it has triggered, not least a Saudi-led oil-price war (see next article). The locus of concern is in the world’s ocean of corporate debt, worth $74trn. On Wall Street the credit spreads of risky bonds have blown out, while in Italy, a bank-dominated economy that is already in lockdown, the share prices of the two biggest lenders, Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit, have dropped in the past month by 28% and 40% respectively.