Opal Group European Private Credit & ABF Summit Recap

European private credit and asset-based finance (ABF) market participants gathered at Opal Group’s European Private Credit & ABF Summit, held at the London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square on 5 October 2026, to discuss how bank retrenchment, higher financing costs, slower exits, and growing institutional demand are reshaping private market credit. Across the sessions covered in this recap, panellists generally described underlying portfolio performance as resilient and realised losses as moderate. However, they also expected outcomes to become more differentiated as borrowers absorb higher debt costs, managers contend with uneven deployment and fundraising, and competition pressures pricing and documentation. At the same time, private credit continues to broaden beyond sponsor-backed direct lending into ABF, portfolio-level finance, rated structures and bank risk-transfer transactions.

KBRA participated across four sessions spanning these themes. Sujeet Godbole, Director, Corporate…