Do you know that feeling when something seems to have happened ages ago, only to realise it was just a few months back? When the pace of world-changing events outstrips what one can reasonably process in a single year?

Welcome to the end of 2025!

9fin’s Taking the Credit followed a market that spent much of the year trying to handle what had been thrown at it from every direction. US president Donald Trump’s return to the White House, his unleashing of global tariffs in April, the turmoil that followed. The war in Ukraine, the war in Gaza, and the uncertain or unstable peace initiatives related to them. French politics. The UK’s budget. The geo-political issues alone are a handful and it all played out within just 12 months.

Many of these developments were broadly force majeure events for investors. But the year was anything but dull when it came to changes much closer to — or squarely within — the private credit perimeter. Another pause in M&A, fierce competition, deeper pricing discounts and renewed talk of “cockroaches” emerging from cracks in the market were just some of the themes.

Let’s have a closer look at the developments that defined the European market in 2025.