Despite predictions to the contrary, corporate issuance has generally held up well this year. Second-quarter issuance was up by 50% on the same period last year. Investment grade issuance was up by a fifth but the honours go to high yield, where Emea deal volumes were more than two-and-a-half times higher than those in the second quarter of 2012.

There was $87.9bn of Emea high-yield issuance in the first half of the year - a record amount, according to Dealogic. But this was not the market's only first: fees from the junk market exceeded those in high grade for the first time.