Borrowing in the corporate bond market is more expensive for the world’s biggest financial institutions than for the average company for the first time in more than 10 years, Bloomberg reported.

Bonds of insurance companies, brokerages and banks yield 1.49 percentage points more than U.S. Treasuries, matching a record high set in October 2002, according to indexes compiled by New York-based Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. The average industrial bond trades at a yield premium of 1.34 percentage points.

Investors want extra compensation for the risk of owning Citigroup Inc., Merrill Lynch and Barclays Plc because of concern that the $50 billion in losses already reported from subprime mortgages will continue to rise. The total damage could reach $400 billion worldwide, Deutsche Bank AG analysts said this week, and Wells Fargo & Co. CEO John Stumpf said the housing market is the worst since the Great Depression.

Banks paid lower interest rates on bonds than the average company until the subprime mortgage crisis, according to Merrill indexes that began in 1996. Financial company yield spreads began trading higher in August and the gap between the two reached a record Nov. 13. Investors punished Citigroup two days ago for its $17 billion in credit-market losses, driving yields on 10-year notes issued by the company to the highest levels in the bank’s history.