Syndicated lending in Europe, the Middle East and Africa fell by almost a third in 2012, with full-year figures from Thomson Reuters highlighting the extent to which companies turned to the capital markets to diversify their funding needs.

Banks lent $703.3bn to companies in the region last year, a 32% fall on the $1.035 trillion of loans syndicated in 2011, according to the annual Thomson Reuters Emea Loans Review.