S&P Global's LCD News found in analysis that despite mounting concern from high-profile regulators concerning the asset class, the default rate on U.S. leveraged loans just dipped to 0.93 percent, its lowest level in almost seven years, Forbes reported. The current rate is down from the already-low 1.62 percent in February. The cause for that relatively steep drop is not a dramatic decrease in loan issuers filing chapter 11 — indeed, defaults have been scarce for years as booming corporate earnings and easy access to credit buoyed all but the most troubled speculative-grade borrowers — but a benchmark name falling off the rolling 12-month calculation on which the default rate is based, according to the analysis. iHeart this month exited the default rate calculation. When the broadcast and internet radio concern filed chapter 11 last March it did so with some $6.3 billion in outstanding term debt, making it one of the largest leveraged loan bankruptcies ever. That filing helped boost the default rate to 2.42 percent at the time, a three-year high, according to LCD's Rachelle Kakouris.
