Private credit has been everywhere in the first quarter of 2026, but what do we actually mean by “private credit”? 

We challenge the increasingly narrow use of the term. While synonymous globally with sponsor-backed direct lending, private credit is far broader, spanning any lending outside bank balance sheets and public bond markets across a wide spectrum of strategies.  

At MA Asset Management, our definition is simple: a defensive, fixed income replacement that generates a premium income return while preserving capital, pursued across the breadth of private lending, not a single corner of it.