Private credit has been growing quietly for years. It is no longer quiet.
As Australian Broker reported, the sector drew fresh attention after NSW property developer Bathla Group entered voluntary administration carrying more than $3 billion in debt, much of it owed to private-credit lenders. ANZ chief executive Nuno Matos then raised the question of whether efforts to protect bank depositors are pushing risk into the less-regulated private-credit market. The sector is now estimated at roughly $200 billion.
What this means for a business borrower
For businesses that cannot meet tightening bank criteria, private credit is a genuine alternative funding avenue. That has not changed. What the article usefully sharpens is the diligence question.
GCI Funds CEO Ben Skilbeck makes a point worth repeating for borrowers, not just brokers: private credit "is not a homogenous market." The lender behind your loan matters as much as the headline number. Two loans at the same rate can carry very different odds of actually settling and of being accommodated if your circumstances shift.
Skilbeck's practical framing is the useful part. He argues the focus should not be "simply on rate or leverage" but on capital certainty: whether the lender has committed capital and can complete the transaction. A term sheet, in his words, "is only useful if the lender has committed capital available."
So the questions to put to any private-credit funder are concrete. Where does the capital come from? Is it committed? How is the fund structured? Has the lender kept funding through tougher conditions? His caution is blunt: a lender carrying a material volume of problem loans may struggle to fund new deals or to offer flexibility on existing ones.
Regulatory scrutiny, Skilbeck says, is welcome. From a borrower's seat, that is the right instinct. Growth of this scale invites both more options and more variance in who is behind them. The rate on the page is one input. Whether the money turns up, and stays available, is the other.