Debt

Private credit vehicles raised $57 billion in the first half of the year, buoyed by appetite for distressed strategies, according to research firm Preqin.

Insurers have become the biggest U.S. investors in the market, topping banks and hedge funds to amass a third of all domestic holdings.

Private equity-owned companies are again raising debt to pay their owners dividends, just as warnings sound about saddling businesses with more leverage in the midst of a downturn.

Lenders estimate that over the next five years, some 10 percent of new U.S. leveraged corporate loans could end up happening in the private market, a major shift from a year or two ago when large private deals were rare.