How to win private credit's market structure

The next evolution of private credit isn’t just deploying capital.

It’s building market infrastructure.

We're seeing early signs of a shift from bilateral dealmaking toward standardized, networked systems — patterns we’ve seen before in the prior evolution of financial infrastructure:

• in SWIFT for payments.
• in FIX for trading.
• in Nasdaq for electronic markets.

As structure took hold, they enabled something far more powerful: shared pricing signals, coordinated execution and trusted performance data.

Private credit is entering a similar phase.

And market infrastructure isn’t just about speed or scale.

It’s about creating the conditions for smarter risk evaluation, real-time portfolio insight, and more dynamic pricing — all in service of better performance.

We’re not there yet.

But we’re a lot closer than it may seem. Read on.

What history teaches us

History shows us how market infrastructure has evolved to facilitate bilateral information across a multilateral market... and that once effective standards are established, the market can move from static connections to dynamic intelligence:

• FIX protocol (1992) standardized equity trading messages. Originally to enable electronic communication of equity trading data between Fidelity Investments and Salomon Brothers. Developed to replace bilateral information and organized into a neutral governing body.
• SWIFT (1973) began as a messaging utility - "set up out of fear of what might happen if a single private and fully American entity controlled global financial flows" (wikipedia). Today, it processes 32 million messages per day, with sophisticated analytics identifying patterns in global flows.
• Nasdaq (1971) transformed over-the-counter trading through electronic infrastructure—unlocking real-time price discovery and system-wide transparency.

Each system began to solve basic interoperability.

But once information became standardized, markets developed the capacity to process that information in new ways.

Private credit may now be entering this same trajectory.

The infrastructure is taking shape

The building blocks are emerging:

• Risk models – Frameworks like the ​MSCI–Moody’s partnership​ offer consistent, scalable ways to evaluate private credit risk across managers and portfolios.
• Documentation standards – LSTA and LMA templates are creating common language and structure for deal terms, making transactions easier to compare, analyze, and monitor.
• Data infrastructure – Emerging platforms are beginning to unify how performance is reported, enabling more consistent analytics and portfolio-level surveillance.

Next: exchange? Not a new Nasdaq, obviously but a a more structured, dynamic market for transferring credit risk.

The next phase of private credit's market infrastructure will create structure at scale — with a foundation for real market mechanisms: pricing signals, trading environments, and new forms of liquidity.

And we're at its forward edge.

From Structure to Signal

Obviously private credit is fundamentally different than most other markets. The products traded are more bespoke.

But a deeply powerful incentive is at work: liquidity.

As risk frameworks, legal terms, and performance data converge, the market begins to shift.

Structure creates visibility. Visibility creates responsiveness.

And here’s where the dynamics start to change.

Firms that are better positioned to interpret standardized signals—across deals, portfolios, and platforms—won’t just move faster.

They’ll see risk earlier, price more precisely, and respond when others are still waiting.

This is where the new edge will emerge—not from proprietary data, but from sharper interpretation of shared structure.

It’s not about layering AI on top of noise.

It’s about building infrastructure that makes signal actionable—and turning responsiveness into advantage.

What firms should do now

As private credit’s infrastructure matures, three strategic priorities are emerging:

1. Shape the standards Engaging early in the development of documentation and risk frameworks puts firms at the source of new market signals.
2. Build interpretation capabilities Standardized data only creates value if it’s understood in context. Firms that can extract signal from structure will see risk—and opportunity—faster.
3. Integrate into emerging infrastructure Aligning with shared platforms and protocols ensures access to the market’s evolving signal layer—and a seat at the table in shaping how it's built.

This isn’t about adopting tools.

It’s about positioning your firm where judgment compounds faster—because the system itself is structured to reveal more, sooner.

The Timeline: 2025 → 2035

Private credit’s structural shift will accelerate in three phases:

• Initial Phase (2025–2027): Basic standardization of data, documentation, and risk inputs.
• Integration Phase (2027–2030): Analytics, monitoring, and feedback systems built on standardized flows.
• Intelligence Phase (2030+): Predictive systems that provide a competitive advantage in allocation as data compounding accelerates.

Structure first, then advantage

There’s an inherent tension in this shift.

Standardization creates interoperability and scale—but it also compresses traditional sources of edge.

As more firms plug into the same systems and data flows, competitive advantage won’t come from access alone.

It will come from interpretation.

The firms that win won’t just adopt standardized infrastructure. They’ll help shape it. They’ll read signals earlier. They (and the market) will benefit from much more liquidity. And they’ll act with more precision.

In a more open system, proprietary edge moves up the stack—from data ownership to insight velocity.

If you liked any of this, you'll love the Private Credit Technology Summit I'm producing in NYC on June 17.

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