Direct lending poised to break records but...
Although the volume of direct lending is burgeoning and likely to set a full year record in 2025, questions are growing about lending standards and the sector’s impact on financial stability

Can funds find pots of gold in Europe?
For years, US private credit has been tapping high net worth individuals. Now funds are trying to do the same in Europe — but markets across the pond are fragmented and heavily regulated

How direct lending took off in Europe
In the second of our two-part history, we look at the evolution of direct lending in the UK, the sector’s expansion to other parts of Europe, and its growth into a dominant asset class

ABF: the new frontier for private credit in Europe
ABF is established in the US. It is now a focus for credit investors looking for private credit deployment opportunities in Europe that can offer attractive potential yields outside of traditional direct lending

Hey Google, can AI chatbots replace investment bankers?
Is artificial intelligence coming for investment banking jobs and mandates? Some experts see it as inevitable – but others say the technology cannot replace the power of bankers’ people skills and nuanced market knowledge

BlackRock rockets up after HPS buyout
After its acquisition of HPS, BlackRock has risen from 18th place to seventh in the US BSL AUM table. The highest-profile faller is UBS, which dropped out of the top 10. It was top in 2024

Watch out for the cockroaches
After the collapse of First Brands, some of the biggest hitters in global finance have been quick to argue that any bugs in the system won’t affect them — but are bad news for everyone else

Liquidity Ladder: Scale may bring attention, but visibility is emerging as the currency of market liquidity
In his third and final article, Daniel Ezra looks at how a CLO manager’s visibility can impact deal pricing

Reset frenzy set to ease — for now
The majority of deals from 2022 and 2033 that could be reset have been, so activity is likely to slow. But 2024 was a busy year for issuance and deals from then may bring a new surge in 2026

How direct lending took off in Europe
In the first of a two-part history, we look at direct lending’s origins in US junk bonds, its leap across the Atlantic and the rise of the huge firms that now dominate the European industry

Venture debt lenders gear up for growth
Lending to venture capital-backed companies is hitting an all-time high in the US and Europe, with AI, enterprise software, fintech, sustainability and biotech among the busiest sectors

Hot August sets tone for rest of 2025
Some European CLO managers still get time off in summer, but the days when the whole market shut down are long gone. So, in a busy year for CLOs, this August was the second busiest ever

Six months of records and turmoil at the top
The first half of 2025 saw convulsions in the US economy and Golub setting a record with a huge reset. Meanwhile, Blackstone slipped to third in overall issuance, despite winning out in US BSL

Disappearing Dealers: How The Pullback in SP Trading Balance Sheet Has Rewired Market Structure
Over the past 10 years, CLO issuance has multiplied, while dealer holdings fell. In the first of a three-part guest essay, Daniel Ezra looks at the causes of this change — and how it affects the market

NAV Financing and GP/LP Solutions: supercharging value creation with flexible financial technology
NAV loans are not new, but the adoption rate by sponsors is growing rapidly. What’s all the fuss about?

Opportunity in CLO double B tranches
Given their low default rates, double B CLO tranches offer much higher coupons than might be expected — suggesting they offer some of the best risk/return trade-offs in all of fixed income

‘It’s rare something is both issuer and investor friendly’
In 2015, Apollo’s Albert Huntington invented CLO resets. But the most important thing he learned back then was how flexible CLOs can be if you get consent from all equity holders

Growth in structured finance sets off legal merry-go-round
The departure of John Goldfinch from Milbank’s structured finance practice in late 2023 began a succession of moves between law firms looking to expand their structured finance practices

Mapping the present and future of credit
Keynote speakers at this year’s Creditflux Symposium highlighted the success of credit markets during recent volatility and argued that a wave of securitisation could drive growth in Europe

We made it through to the other side
LMEs and Trump tariffs were hot topics at the Creditflux CLO Symposium 2025. But managers agreed that the market has survived — and maybe even thrived — through recent volatility

We’re ready to grow
The first day of the Creditflux symposium was dedicated to asset-backed finance. Attendees said stable regulations were helping the sector flourish — and predicted it could hit USD 20tn

Tariffs kill off year-long CLO boom
The global impact on CLOs of President Trump’s tariffs was plain as volatility increased and spreads blew out. But managers helped keep US issuance steady with print-and-sprint deals

Don’t fall foul of bad language
A few years ago, maturity amendments were a major focus. But waning attention to European CLO documents is leaving some investors exposed to extension risk

SRTs are pricier but more effective
In the second of our two-part look at regulatory arbitrage, we investigate how SRTs improve upon the synthetic collateralised loan obligations that were popular before the financial crisis

CLO Symposium 2025
The Creditflux CLO Symposium will be held at the Nobu Hotel, London on 14-15 May 2025