Private Credit

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is dramatically ramping up its direct-lending effort, setting aside an additional $50 billion to capture a bigger chunk of the fast-growing market.

Wall Street is still awaiting regulatory approval for the first full-blown private-asset ETFs, but for now opportunistic issuers are continuing to churn out products that claim to replicate the booming asset class — and stretching the definition of “liquid private equity.”

Alacrity Solutions found itself in a tough spot. The Indiana-based company helps property and auto insurers manage customer claims by taking calls, sending adjusters into the field and reviewing files.

Private equity firms are facing early tests to the theory that Donald Trump’s return to the White House is a net win for America’s dealmakers.

As these two strategies evolve, financial advisors must understand their nuances to align client portfolios with current market conditions and future financial goals.

Macquarie Group Ltd. is shuttering its US debt capital markets arm, a business that includes leveraged loan origination, syndication and trading, to focus resources on private credit, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Apollo Global Management Inc.’s plan to tap wallets of rich clients is paying off, with its wealth business raking in record capital last year and boosting assets from the sector 50%.

Meme coins are just the tip of the iceberg representing unproductive uses of capital. I could write volumes on other examples. But given its current popularity, I use it to help spread the productivity gospel once again.

Three factors heavily influenced the financial landscape over the last 12 months — AI-focused technological optimism, hoped-for leveling up, and higher government bond yields.

JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s dealmakers are spending their time in the Swiss Alps huddling with ebullient clients, but the boss of the biggest US bank is striking a more cautious tone.

BlackRock Inc. attracted an annual record of $641 billion in client cash, underlining the firm’s global reach across public and, increasingly, private assets as it integrates multibillion-dollar acquisitions and reshapes its leadership.

Invesco Ltd.’s ETF lineup absorbed a record amount of cash in 2024 from at least two classes of investors: those chasing AI-driven gains, and those shying away from big tech’s sway.

US investment banks have little room for error in their upcoming full-year results.

Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook said policymakers can proceed more cautiously with additional rate cuts, citing a sturdy labor market and recent bumpiness in inflation data.

We’ve published the most widely read articles for 2024 in the investing and practice management categories, but that leaves out quite a few memorable pieces we've shared this year. You may want to check them out!

I will be looking at a few indicators in 2025 to tell me where financial markets are going. Most of them relate to the bond market, because it is both a window into the overall economy and an important component of how stocks and other risky assets are valued.

This is the first part of a series of Bloomberg Opinion columns exploring the risks related to the US’s rapidly expanding debt and budget deficit.

Private credit firms want more than corporate lending. The largest are laying the groundwork to finance everything from auto loans and residential mortgages to chip manufacturing and data centers in an effort to swell the size of the market by the trillions.

The near-$5 trillion hedge fund industry is having one of the toughest years in decades in convincing fee-conscious investors to fork out cash for new market players.

Private credit may be all the rage among investors, but there are better alternatives, according to JPMorgan Asset Management.

In the port city of Duluth, Minnesota, local activists and Washington-based groups are coalescing to scrutinize — and possibly stall — a $6.2 billion acquisition of a power utility led by Global Infrastructure Partners.

The trend is your friend. Or, in Larry Fink’s case, your primary acquisition tickbox.

The decision of whether to generate lifetime income with an annuity should be made on its own merits, e.g., as part of a holistic, goals-based investing process. In those cases where annuitized income is deemed beneficial, though, this article has illustrated why the purchase of a qualified annuity from IRA assets may be more attractive than you might expect.

BlackRock Inc. agreed to buy HPS Investment Partners in an all-stock deal valued at roughly $12 billion, a purchase that will propel the world’s largest asset manager into the highest ranks of private credit.

Big banks have been warning their investors about the competition they face from private credit, electronic market makers and others for some time.

The world’s biggest private credit managers are turning to an obscure investment product to help raise billions from deep-pocketed insurance companies, testing the limits of industry safeguards meant to curb risk.

Blackstone Inc.’s main private credit fund stormed the investment-grade bond market to raise a combined $1.5 billion in a single day, adding to the rush of direct lenders trying to lock in cheaper financing costs.

Larry Fink turned to big deals to get BlackRock Inc. out in front of a decade of money gushing into index funds. Now he’s doing the same to make sure his firm isn’t left behind in the stampede into private assets.

If you’re unfamiliar with synthetic risk transfers, there’s a chance you’ll hear all about them when the next financial crisis hits. They’re the latest way for big banks to game rules designed to safeguard the system, and they’re growing fast. So far, regulators seem all but oblivious.

To understand the wave of bank partnerships with private-credit fund managers during the past year or so, think back to the boom in mortgage lending through securitization in the early 2000s. The same forces are at work: a huge demand for finance, limited and costly bank capital and investment bankers’ ingenuity and desire to generate business.

If you’re unfamiliar with synthetic risk transfers, there’s a chance you’ll hear all about them when the next financial crisis hits. They’re the latest way for big banks to game rules designed to safeguard the system, and they’re growing fast. So far, regulators seem all but oblivious.

Private equity can play an important role in an investor’s portfolio, offering strong return potential, increased diversification, and expanded investment opportunity. But a key step to the success of these investments is selecting the right manager.

Ironically, China’s President Xi Jinping has been cornered into the same uncomfortable spot reserved for high-profile chief executives like JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Jamie Dimon: Impatient stock investors are brushing aside the intricacies of running complex businesses and demanding simplistic numbers to justify their euphoria.

When BlackRock Inc. completed its initial public offering in 1999, it fell a bit flat. There was no first day pop; Founder and Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink didn’t even get to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. Valued at just under $900 million, the firm was one of 30 large investment-managers in the US, managing $165 billion of assets.

BlackRock Inc. reaching $450 billion in alternative assets is putting a finer point on a case it has been making all year: it’s not just an ETF powerhouse.

Private capital – encompassing private equity and private credit – is in the midst of a bit of a renaissance at the moment. IPO activity hit a peak in 2021, the year after the pandemic and then promptly plunged to levels not seen in years.

The outlook for corporate debt is improving now that the Federal Reserve has begun cutting interest rates, according to the latest Bloomberg Markets Live Pulse survey.