Marketplace A private credit market boom
8 snips
Feb 26, 2026 
Mitchell Hartman, a reporter who previews economic data, and Daniel Ackerman, a markets and banking reporter, dig into the private credit boom. They trace its fivefold growth since 2008 and why nonbank lending rose. The conversation covers concentration of loans in software, risks to the broader economy, and market reverberations from AI and banking shifts.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Higher Returns Come With Higher Private Credit Risk
- Private credit often pays higher returns because it takes on riskier loans that banks and bond markets avoid.
- Laura Veldkamp and Elizabeth de Fontenay note investors like endowments and wealthy individuals accept that risk for diversification and yield.
Software Lending Creates Sector Concentration Risk
- Private credit concentrates in sectors like software where firms are too small for bonds or banks, creating vulnerability when sector sentiment shifts.
- Gerald Cohen highlights software firms' AI-threat fears triggered recent share drops for private credit managers.
Private Credit Stress Can Ripple To Banks
- Stress at private credit managers can ripple through the financial system because big banks sometimes lend to those asset managers.
- Laura Veldkamp warns that bank exposure to private credit intermediaries could amplify losses even without a full private credit collapse.