Corporate Bond Defaults at Record High, Moody’s Says

A lethal combination of high debt, the recession and the credit crunch drove corporate bond defaults to a record high in the first half of 1991, Moody’s Investors Service Inc. said Monday.

Moody’s, one of the nation’s leading bond-rating agencies, said 64 companies defaulted on $12.5 billion of debt in the first half, up from 43 defaults on $10.7 billion a year ago.

The number of defaults so far this year is three times as high as in the first half of 1989, when 21 corporate issuers defaulted on $3.3 billion of bonds.

And the rate of junk bond defaults in the first half was the highest in 21 years.