The eurozone debt crisis, banks’ interconnectedness to indebted countries and the removal of the senior status of unsecured bonds created a “recipe for disaster” in the European bond market in the second half of the year, with bond issuance falling to a nine-year low.

Deals totalling $617.8bn were priced in the second half of 2011 - the lowest half-year volume since 2002, according to data released by Dealogic. At 29%, this was also the lowest half-year as a proportion of annual volume ever.