 U.S. leveraged finance issuance totaled a record 1.08 trillion in 2021, including 465 billion in high yield loans and 615 billion in U.S. institutional loans, according a report to be published Friday by KKR Credit, a unit of KKR Co. Inc. KKR, -3.88 . While most of the eight sub-sets of the credit market turned in positive total returns for 2021, only two of the eight were positive in January: European bank loans up 0.35 in total return and U.S. bank loans up 0.36. 