In the latest episode of "Credit Matters," guest Meghan Neenan (NA / Head of North America Non-Bank Financial Institutions, Managing Director) joins host Shankar Ramakrishnan and co-host Bruce Clark to explain what private credit is, how it has grown since the global financial crisis, and why it matters for financial markets.

Neenan breaks down key segments such as direct lending and business development companies, discusses fund financing tools like NAV facilities, and explains how bank regulatory capital and leveraged lending guidance helped shift lending outside banks. The conversation covers cyclicality, refinancing and amend-and-extend dynamics, PIK features, and Fitch’s due diligence and rating approaches, including macroeconomic inputs and lessons from the GFC.

They also address recent stress headlines, redemption-driven liquidity concerns, retail participation, dispersion among managers, and why Fitch sees private credit as systemically relevant but not likely to trigger broad contagion.

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Hosts Shankar Ramakrishnan and Bruce Clark are joined by Dave Corbell to discuss the state of US and European primary credit markets amid volatility tied to the Iran conflict, inflation concerns, private credit risks, and shifting rate expectations.

They note heavy front-loaded issuance as banks push borrowers to seize brief market windows, with the US posting a record $651bn investment-grade first quarter and Europe also seeing a record Q1, while spreads have widened only mildly and often tighten when supply slows.

Demand remains strong with cover ratios above four times, though higher Treasury yields and rising new-issue premiums lift borrowing costs. They discuss risk-on behavior despite negative headlines, changing rate-cut versus hike pricing, a slowdown in European high yield, emerging market issuance strength, refinancing risks from COVID-era debt, and signs of strain in some structured finance assets without clear systemic fallout.

On this episode of Credit Matters, host Shankar Ramakrishnan is joined by Bruce Clark and European credit analyst Matthew Barrett, to discuss the surge in “reverse Yankee” issuance—US companies raising debt in Europe—as AI infrastructure funding drives jumbo deals and issuers seek diversification to avoid overcrowding the dollar market and rising costs.

They explain how rate differentials, a tight cross-currency basis swap (around 0–5bp), and attractive all-in euro funding have pulled issuers across the pond, citing IBM’s lower euro coupons and record multi-tranche trades from Amazon and Alphabet, including landmark sterling and Swiss franc issuance.

The team also explores how Middle East-driven volatility and shifting rate-hike expectations in Europe and the UK are lifting yields and new-issue concessions, slowing supply, and making timing issuance windows harder even as demand remains strong when investors are compensated.

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