Private Debt Intelligence – 11/22/2021
North American private debt AUM growth vs. Europe
Chart
Download Data
[wpdm_package id=’50325′]
Up until the Global Financial Crisis, the majority of Europe-focused financing came from banks. After 2008, borrowers were forced to turn to other sources of debt finance as banks tightened the purse strings. Since then, the private debt industry in Europe has grown a lot, with AUM increasing more than tenfold from $30bn at the end of 2008 to $333bn by March 2021. Over the same time period, North American private debt AUM increased from $188bn to $677bn, a more than threefold increase, with 2019 and 2020 seeing 13% and 28% AUM growth compared to the year before respectively. In Europe, AUM growth was 15% in 2019 and 23% in 2020 compared to the year before.
(Past performance is no guarantee of future results.)
Contact: Laura Messchendorp
laura.messchendorp@preqin.com
Latest news
Software, consumer-related direct lending deals fell in H1'26
The software and technology sector, the second-most-active sector in 2025 at 17% of total deal activity, slid to fifth place in the first half of 2026.
Unconquered Territory
With most of the map still unexplored, there’s room for a sequel.