Our view on high yield defaults

As we approach the end of 2025, we have been taking stock of the key themes of the year and any lessons we can take from them. It has been a strong year for European high yield (HY) credit, with solid performance for the index as a whole and average yields compressed by around 40bp over the course of the year.

Nothing beats an 11-hour flight back to London for evaluating the outlook for collateralised loan obligations (CLOs), having attended the Opal CLO conference in California.

On Thursday, the European Central Bank (ECB) published a report setting out a number of proposals for simplifying the regulatory framework for banks.

As we approach the end of a year that has seen risk assets shrug off US tariffs and mounting concerns over AI-driven tech valuations, TwentyFour Asset Management’s portfolio management team selects the seven key questions that they believe will define 2026 for fixed income investors.

Late last month, the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) published updated migration numbers for the year to June 2025. As we argued here, immigration will be an important variable to monitor when it comes to assessing the health of labour markets.

After solid stress test results from UK insurers last week, on Tuesday it was the banks’ turn as the Bank of England (BoE) published its 2025 stress test results along with December’s Financial Stability Report.