Investors face losses from fixed-income securities “for the next couple of years,” according to BlackRock Inc., the world’s biggest money manager.

“Overall returns of the market will continue to be negative as monetary policy shifts,” Scott Thiel, deputy chief investment officer for fundamental fixed income, said at a media briefing in London today.

U.S. Treasuries, the benchmark for everything from mortgages to corporate bonds, lost 2.5 percent this year through yesterday, according to Bloomberg World Bond Indexes, amid concern the Federal Reserve is moving closer to ending its monetary-stimulus program. The Fed last week unexpectedly refrained from trimming its monthly asset-purchases.

BlackRock still sees opportunities in fixed-income assets, Thiel said. He is “overweight” Portuguese, Irish and Slovenian government bonds, meaning the company has increased its holdings relative to the benchmark it uses to gauge performance.