Junior-claim loans remained hot during the second quarter, with $12.4 billion of new-issue volume, up from the first quarter’s post-credit-crunch high of $11.7 billion. In the year to date, second-lien volume totals $24.1 billion, which is the second-highest six-month total on record, behind only the first half of 2007 ($25.2 billion)

For a complete description of how second-lien loans work check out LCD’s free Loan Market Primer.