Our friends at Bloomberg hit the market last week with a startling headline: “Private Credit Faces Worst Reckoning Since 2008.” Just in time for us to speak to hundreds of institutional investors at conferences in Traverse City, Michigan, and Toronto about private credit’s virtues.

We did find evidence of solid risk management. A recent Fitch report on Canadian pension funds said investment portfolios “will remain pressured by a challenging market backdrop, as the increased cost of debt and anticipated slower growth weigh on private asset valuations.” The good news, the report went on, is that “the exceptionally strong liquidity of the funds provides sufficient cushion to absorb investment volatility and gives them flexibility to work through troubled investments as they are not forced sellers of assets.”

Not to say Canada doesn’t have headline risk. Some retail and wealth investors suffered losses with a handful of private debt shops embarking on dubious ventures. The result was private income funds with private credit or asset-backed lending and bridge loans being gated. Banks and other large platforms accordingly moved to more sizable managers. Committee members read these news articles and infer all private credit is risky.