Private credit is in a challenging position.
Fundraising remains strong, but putting capital to work is getting harder:
The BSL market is winning more borrowers
Deployment is slowing amid sluggish PE activity
Fundraising has been resilient in 2026
Read the full breakdown below.
This Week’s Data
September US Private Credit Monitor (PitchBook)
Private Credit Faces Deployment Squeeze (Reuters)
Growing Competition
Private credit is facing an unfamiliar problem: it’s losing borrowers.
Following Covid, low interest rates and a hot private equity market fueled a surge in private credit lending. Speed and certainty of execution helped private credit win many deals from the broadly syndicated loan (“BSL”) market.
In 2022 and 2023, $33B of broadly syndicated loans were refinanced by private credit. Just $4B moved in the other direction.1
Today, this dynamic has reversed. In 3Q’26, $16B of private credit loans were refinanced in the BSL market, the largest outflow in PitchBook data going back to 2022.
Pricing is driving much of this shift. Private credit spreads are typically 1–2% wider than BSL spreads.3 With rates still high, many borrowers are turning to the syndicated market to reduce interest costs.
Deployment Slowdown
Private credit is also facing pressure to deploy capital.
PitchBook data shows direct lending volume fell 28% year over year in 3Q’26, even as deal count was steady. Deals are getting smaller: average deal size fell to $240M from $335M in 3Q’25.4