Historical Analysis, 1970–2004

Abstract

Today’s syndicated loan market is a crucial element of the global financial system. According to Thomson Financial, $2.4 trn worth of syndicated loans were granted worldwide in 2004, amounting to no less than one-third of total international financing including bond and equity issuance. From modest volumes ($7 bn) in 1972, lending on this market has developed in a spectacular way during the past three decades (Figure 3.1). This chapter draws a historical perspective of the global financial developments that have shaped the syndicated loan markets since the early 1970s. In this context, the emergence of the Eurodollar market in the 1960s, the balance of payments problems of non-oil exporting emerging countries in the 1970s, the Latin American financial crises and the US merger wave of the 1980s, and finally the competitive financial environment and the emergence of the secondary loan market during the 1990s, are found to be most influential economic events in advancement of syndicated loan markets.