9Questions is our Q&A series featuring key decision-makers in the corporate credit markets — get in touch if you know who we should be talking to!

As 2024 draws to a close, there were some people writing the ‘golden age’ of private credit’s obituary. For others, it now feels like the asset class is about to head into its next act.

That next era for the asset class is most likely to come in the form of asset-based private credit. At many of the industry events this year, panelists and 9fin sources have been declaring it private credit’s "emerging frontier."

As part of our series previewing 2024, 9fin sat down with Isaiah Toback, partner and deputy co-chief investment officer at Castlelake, to discuss what happened this year in the world of asset-based private credit and what 2025 might hold.

1. 9fin has been on the conference circuit this year and asset-based lending has been a prominent feature of a lot of them. Why has there such a big focus on asset-based private credit this year?

The asset-based markets are huge, and we have seen significant growth in these markets over the last three years, driven by bank retrenchment and ‘de-banking,’ which has pushed non-bank lenders to seek more stable funding solutions to complement their public securitization shelf execution. We believe non-bank lending is entrenched in the real economy and provides a valuable service in light of ‘de-banking’ which we expect to accelerate in the coming years.