US Covenant Trends Report H1 26: Leveraged Loans and High Yield Bonds

9fin's legal team published its H1 2026 covenant trends reports for the US leveraged loan and US high yield bond markets, tracking how sponsor and non-sponsor deal terms have shifted over the past six months.

The TLDR from our US leveraged loans report:

• Margin ratchets in 40% of sponsored deals, up from 29% in H2 25
• Quarterly zero floor builder baskets rising to 43% of sponsored deals, from 26% in H2 25
• 1L ratio debt headroom tightening to 0.28x EBITDA, from 0.46x in H2 25
• J.Crew, Serta and Chewy blockers now near-standard, with two sponsored deals including catch-all LME blockers

And from our US high yield bonds report:

• Ratio investments in 83% of sponsored deals versus 56% of non-sponsored - the widest sponsor gap in the dataset
• General RP basket capacity narrowing to 45% EBITDA for sponsored and 28% for non-sponsored deals
• J.Crew blockers doubling in non-sponsored deals, from 14% in 2025 to 27% in H1 26