9fin subscribers get the latest news and analysis ahead of the crowd. Find out what else we offer on private credit here.

One drizzly night in autumn 2023 in a pub near Soho, a small huddle of City suits talked seriously at a table to the side of the bar. These were not regulars. The next week it would be another pub, another borough carefully selected to put distance between themselves and their place of work next to the Old Bailey in St Pauls.

The gang communicated nothing to each other in writing, relying instead on face-to-face conversations and the trust built up over decades of working together. Meanwhile, in the months to March 2024, their circle grew in number. They had been reassured to understand that similar conversations were taking place across the Atlantic.

On the afternoon of Friday 8 March 2024, private credit team member after team member at Barings’ London office in St Pauls resigned in turn, and the asset manager knew it had a crisis on its hands.