"There's a worry that there's no buyers of bonds and that on any given day everyone might want to sell," he said.
The past few months have seen a number of market watchers express concern about the $10tn corporate bond market.
Corporate bonds allow companies to sell their debt to investors, and operate in a similar way to government bonds.
In
a speech last week, Mr Gilbert warned of the systemic risk of a run on
the corporate bond market and called on the Bank of England and other
central banks to act as "buyers of last resort".
"I think central
banks should consider stepping into the corporate bond market and buying
corporate bonds in a period of severe market dislocation," he told the Financial Times' City Network.
He
said that if the banks did this, it would ensure there was enough cash
in the market to prevent a run on corporate bonds and "widespread panic"
similar to the run on Northern Rock.
On Monday, Mr Gilbert told
BBC Radio 4's Today programme that he believed the Bank of England and
other central banks "should consider, and I know that they are
considering, whether they should make sure that the market works in a
reasonable manner to stop a run on bond funds".
Corporate
bonds have enjoyed a successful period as investors moved their savings
into them in the hope of achieving better returns given the fall in
global interest rates following the financial crisis.
However,
there are now concerns that as interest rates start to rise, investors
will return to more traditional savings vehicles and leave the corporate
bond market, leading to a liquidity crisis.
Mr Gilbert told
Today that while he did not think a crisis in the bond market similar to
that which occurred in the aftermath of the financial crisis was
likely, he did fear there was not "going to be enough liquidity in the
market when interest rates start to go up".
His comments came as Aberdeen Asset Management reported
a 12.6% fall in assets under management to £283.7bn in the 12 months to
the end of September. Pre-tax profit dipped slightly to £353.7m from
£354.6m last year.
The company has been hit by investors pulling their money out of its emerging market funds.
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