City is the top bonds issuer

The group’s Bond Markets 2009 report said a total of $718bn (£448bn) worth of international bonds – issued when firms wish to raise capital by offering bonds in a foreign market – were issued in London in 2008. This was 30 per cent of global issuance.

The UK has overtaken the US, which only attracted 24 per cent of the bonds’ global issuance.

IFSL said 70 per cent of global secondary trading of the bonds took place in London last year.

“London has cemented its position as the leading global centre for international bond trading when more and more companies are seeking direct access to the capital markets as a means of counteracting the scarcity of bank debt finance,” said IFSL head Sir Stephen Wright.

The report said the level of issuance seen in London was up 42 per cent compared to 2007, while also adding that global international bond issuance fell 19 per cent last year.

And the report said the UK government’s net bond issuance increased four-fold to £126bn in the financial year to 2009, compared to the previous year, as it raised money to control its spiralling debts.

Meanwhile, a Moody’s report said yesterday the amount of bonds that were failing to make repayments, as companies collapsed around the world, continued to rise in the first three months of 2009 to 7.4 per cent.