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Direct lending funds looked to be in the ascendancy against banks in the game of poker being played out for supremacy in private credit. But banks have raised the stakes in recent months with JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs putting private credit at the heart of their origination machine.

On 14 July, JP Morgan announced the creation of a strategic financing solutions business. The bank had always kept its LevFin origination desk and private credit financing closely aligned, but formalised matters by creating a single unit at the bank through which it can provide corporates with all forms of financing from high yield, leveraged loans, convertibles, private credit or any other bespoke solution.

The $50bn of balance sheet capital that it is allocating to direct lending will sit under this new financing division.