European banks are issuing new subordinated bonds that can be written off in a crisis. For investors who are willing to take the risk, our analysis suggests these bonds may provide a way to beat the low returns in today’s corporate bond market.

Investment-grade bonds issued by nonfinancial firms in Europe’s peripheral countries have had a great run but now look expensive. In our view, government bonds from the likes of Spain and Italy offer better value for investors who want peripheral exposure.

For high-yield investors with large US credit exposures, these are uncertain times. The pricing of securities is becoming more volatile, spurred by interest-rate volatility, and companies are borrowing more, causing concern about their future creditworthiness. The solution, in our view, is to diversify—and we regard the European high-yield markets as attractive.

High-yield default rates have been unusually low over the past couple of years and now look as though they are on the cusp of a reversal. But default rates in themselves could be less damaging to high-yield bond returns than rising government bond yields.