In spite of governments intervening to shore up banking systems, there are so far few signs that this is improving conditions in the credit markets.
For example, in October there has been no issuance of bonds backed by credit card loans in the US or Europe, according to data from Dealogic. Until recently, activity in this type of asset-backed security had held up reasonably well.
“There is now a relative advantage to raising funds through guaranteed bank paper versus the asset-backed markets,” said Christopher Flanagan, managing director at JPMorgan. “It is very tough to say how long this will remain the case for, as much of it depends on what further action governments take. It could be months or even years.”