Yet another fixed-income hedge fund has been forced to suspend withdrawals as the credit market continues to spiral downward.

Elgin Capital suspended redemptions from its US$1 billion Corporate Credit Strategy just before Christmas, the Financial Times reports. The firm has also stopped calculating the fund’s net-asset value.

The London-based hedge fund firm, which manages some US$3.3 billion, had expressed optimism about the fund’s portfolio at the end of the third quarter. At the time, it was down about 6.3% on the year. Since then, leveraged loans have continued to decline in value, causing further losses for Corporate Credit.

Elgin was founded in 2003 by Mike Clancy, former credit trading chief at Merrill Lynch, and Guillaume Bonpun, who headed bond syndication at Dresdner Kleinwort.