Private credit is beginning to look like the bond market — and that comes with red flags

• Private credit is increasingly resembling the public debt market as rapid growth blurs the traditional divide between the two.
• The industry’s size stood at about $3 trillion in early 2025, up from $2 trillion in 2020, according to Morgan Stanley.

Private credit is starting to resemble the public bond market, as the rapid growth and development of the asset class blurs lines that have separated two financing channels.

Once restricted to a niche corner of lending to mid-sized firms, private credit has expanded across sectors, borrower sizes and collateral types, prompting large allocators to treat it increasingly as part of the same opportunity set as high-yield bonds and leveraged loans, said experts. 

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/09/private-credit-public-debt-market-red-flags.html