Oxane Partners’ ‘Compass Survey 2026’
maps credit market sentiments

Survey of 380+ credit professionals highlights industry’s inclination towards ABF, AI, and risk discipline

New York / London - 3 June 2026
Oxane Partners ("Oxane"), a leading technology-driven solutions provider to the private credit markets, today announced the results of Compass 2026 , a credit-only survey of 380+ professionals across global credit markets. Capturing the sentiment across investment banks, institutional investors, asset managers and private credit firms, the survey offers a timely read on the market at a critical point, as Private Credit+ continues to scale.

Compass 2026 finds that private credit remains firmly positioned for growth, with 83% of respondents expecting assets under management (AUM) to increase over the next 12 to 18 months while pointing to a more disciplined phase for the market, defined by risk management, and the need for a scalable operating infrastructure. The survey spans direct lending, asset-based finance, fund finance, real estate, securitized products, infrastructure, and SRTs, a market that Oxane defines as ‘Private Credit+’.

“Private credit remains one of the most important growth stories in financial markets, but the next phase of growth will look different from the last,” said Sumit Gupta, CEO and Co-Founder of Oxane Partners. “As private credit grows further, firms will need to pair investment conviction with prudent risk management, and the operating discipline required to scale with confidence. Compass 2026 captures a market that is still ambitious, but increasingly clear-eyed about the infrastructure needed to support that ambition.”

Key findings from Compass Survey 2026 include:

• ABF and specialty finance lead Private Credit+ growth, cited by 66% of respondents, ahead of fund finance at 60% and corporate direct lending at 56%. Securitized products also show notable momentum, with 49% of active firms planning to increase deployment.
• Risk management ranks as the top operational challenge, cited by 42% of respondents market-wide and 60% of funds.
• Four in five firms cited increase in technology budgets by 20% or more, reflecting the tech infrastructure needs for a growing complexity of Private Credit+.
• 87% of respondents are actively engaging with AI, either using it in production, piloting it or developing AI capabilities internally.
• Security, scalability, execution certainty and financial stability are the top vendor evaluation criteria, showing that firms are prioritizing resilience and delivery confidence as much as innovation.

The survey also points to a clear distinction in modernization priorities across market participants. Banks appear further along in moving AI into production, with 40% reporting live AI use, even as legacy modernization remains a key challenge. Funds, meanwhile, are feeling the operating consequences of scale more directly, with greater emphasis on technology investment, valuation confidence and regulatory readiness.

The findings also reflect a broader convergence across the market, with banks and institutional capital moving deeper into credit alongside alternative lenders. As investments expand across strategies, collateral types and financing structures, firms need controls that go beyond investment performance to identify risk pockets, data inconsistencies, collateral issues and concerns around fraud or double pledging. AI has a role to play in this shift, but the practical opportunity lies in embedding it into existing workflows.

“Both banks and private credit firms are not simply looking for more tools; they are looking for operating infrastructure that helps them respond rationally to a more complex market,” said Kanav Kalia, Managing Director at Oxane Partners. “Compass 2026 shows a clear mandate for stronger operating discipline. Firms are still focused on growth, but they are strongly prioritizing the infrastructure to manage that growth. There’s a clear realization that this is what will give firms the confidence to scale through changing markets.”

Oxane brings a credit market vantage point to Compass 2026 through its work with 23 of the top 30 global banks and 13 of the top 30 global private credit funds. Today, Oxane Panorama, is running $1.4 trillion in aggregate client AUM globally.

Compass 2026 builds on Oxane’s Private Credit+ thesis, launched last year, which identified a $45 trillion opportunity across the expanding Private Credit+ ecosystem. The survey adds a timely market sentiment to that thesis, capturing how senior credit professionals are thinking about growth, deployment, risk, technology and operating readiness as the asset class enters its next phase. Oxane is pleased to share these findings with the wider market as part of its annual Compass survey series.

To download the full Compass 2026 report and view the complete survey findings, visit Oxane Partners’ website HERE .

About Oxane Partners

Oxane Partners is a leading provider of technology solutions to the Private Credit+ industry. Our solutions transform the way investment firms and banks analyse and manage their investments. We unify our technology with deep domain expertise to provide compelling solutions to the challenges faced by the private credit ecosystem.

Our platform, Oxane Panorama is running over $1.4 Trillion in client aggregate AUM for 100+ clients including global investment banks, private credit, private equity, hedge funds, and alternative asset managers. With offices in London, New York, Gurgaon, and Hyderabad our team of 900+ supports clients in more than 20 geographies globally.

Founded in 2014 by former structured credit investment professionals at Deutsche Bank, Oxane Partners is at the forefront of the digital transformation that is underway in the private markets industry. For more information, please visit https://oxanepartners.com.

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Gurneet Singh
Marketing Communications
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