2026 has been a hard year for private credit.
After years of rapid growth, the industry is grappling with rising defaults, redemption requests, and mounting scrutiny over loan valuations.
But 2Q’26 offered a few signs that conditions may be stabilizing:
Quarterly fundraising reached the highest level since 2024
Deal terms shifted slightly in favor of lenders
Read the full breakdown below.
This Week’s Reads
Fundraising Bump
Finance headlines in '26 have been dominated by private credit’s challenges. But 2Q fundraising showed that institutional investors still have appetite for the asset class.
North American closed-end direct lending funds, which target institutional investors, raised $16B in 2Q. This was the highest quarterly total since ‘24.
Ongoing redemptions have pressured semi-liquid funds, which cater mostly to retail investors. But these funds, and retail overall, remain a small slice of total private credit AUM.
This dynamic reflects an interesting split: institutional LPs, who make up the bulk of private credit capital, are still committed. Retail investors have driven most of the recent redemption wave.
A Better Market for Lenders
The recent private credit stress may ultimately benefit lenders in new originations.