As €10bn ($14.28bn) in orders flooded in from investors for Italian carmaker Fiat’s junk bond last month, even the company’s bankers were surprised by the torrent of demand for a €1.25bn offering of risky debt. Just a few weeks earlier, such a deal might not have been possible.

Indeed, risk aversion levels were so high during the first 18 months of the financial crisis that the European high-yield market was completely closed to new issues.