New York, NY, January 28, 2021 – Global Corporate Credit Risk Increased 20% in 2020, with More than Half of Corporate Bonds Falling Below Investment Grade, According to Credit Benchmark Year-in-Review
While most credit issuers managed to stave off defaults thanks to massive government support programs, the scale of downgrades and overall credit quality deterioration was truly staggering in 2020. According to a new report from Credit Benchmark, The COVID Year: Review of Credit and Solvency Trends in 2020, global corporate credit risk increased nearly 20% over the past year, with the global percentage of investment grade corporate bonds dropping to just 46%. The full report offers a deep dive on 2020 credit risk trends across corporate credit, sovereigns and leveraged loans, drawing on Credit Benchmark’s consensus-based credit risk analytics.
“Our credit quality data clearly shows an unprecedented level of economic disruption wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, but it also uncovers some bright spots where things were not as bad as they could have been and – in some cases – where companies have been able to thrive,” said David Carruthers, Credit Benchmark Head of Research. “Importantly, by offering this differentiated view of credit quality, which captures the views of the world’s largest financial institutions who have real risk exposure to these entities, we’re able to deliver a much more granular, nuanced view of credit trends across the rated and un-rated universe of corporates, sovereigns and leveraged loans.”
Following are some of the key findings in the Credit Benchmark 2020 year-in-review:
The full report delves into detail on the month-by-month trends in all of these areas and more, offering an inventory of the major moves of the past year and a guide to what to watch in 2021. To access the full report, click here.
About Credit Benchmark
Credit Benchmark is a financial data and analytics company that brings together internal credit risk views from 40+ of the world’s leading financial institutions. The contributions are anonymized, aggregated, and published twice monthly in the form of credit consensus ratings and aggregate analytics to provide an independent, real-world measure of risk on rated and unrated entities globally. The data is available via the Credit Benchmark Web App, Excel add-in, flat file download, and third party platforms.
Credit Benchmark was founded in 2012 and is based in New York and London. For more information, visit www.creditbenchmark.com.