PPCC: Pisitófilos Creditófagos. Primavera 2026

[Derby]

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/30/private-credit-risk-banks-europe-earnings-barclays-ubs-debt-santander.html

Private credit fears loom large over Europe’s banks this earnings season

Key Points
*European banks’ exposure to private credit has returned to the spotlight this earnings season.
*Both UBS and Deutsche Bank called their positions “well diversified”, while Santander said its exposure is “immaterial.”
*But Bank of America’s latest credit investor survey highlighted growing anxieties over spillover risks from private credit, particularly among higher-grade investors.

Banking executives in Europe have moved to calm investor concerns over private credit risks, as lenders’ exposure to the troubled sector re-emerged during earnings season.

Barclays revealed a £15 billion ($20.3 billion) exposure to private credit in its first quarter earnings statement on Tuesday. This formed part of an overall structured financing exposure to non-bank financial intermediaries, totaling £66 billion, which also included an additional £1 billion tied to business development companies, a focus of recent stress in the U.S.

The U.K. lender said it took a £228 million credit-related hit during the quarter after the collapse of specialist mortgage provider Market Financial Solutions (MFS) in February.

C.S. Venkatakrishnan, Barclays’ CEO, said the single-name charge, which related to a “well-publicized, sophisticated fraud”, was in its securitized products business. The U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority opened an investigation into MSF in March. Its collapse was viewed as a potential “cockroach” pointing to wider issues in the space.

Barclays said its broader private credit activity is focused mainly on senior corporate lending, predominantly in closed-end funds involving large established managers, with strict limits on borrower and sector concentrations.

Meanwhile, Santander’s potential losses arising from its credit exposures, including those tied to Market Financial Solutions, have been “fully covered” in the first quarter, according to CFO José García Cantera.

Speaking with CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Wednesday, Cantera declined to comment specifically on MFS. But he said Santander’s exposure to the wider private credit space remains “immaterial”, representing less than 1% of its total exposures, with 70% of it comprising subscription facilities.

“For us, the question is not if one particular case attracts attention. It’s whether systems actually work,” he said. “We feel very, very comfortable with our credit systems because they have proven time and time again they work properly.”

Tensions spread

Santander’s exposure to London-based MFS, which focused on bridge loans and buy-to-let mortgages, is believed to be between £200 million and £300 million.

MFS entered insolvency proceedings in a U.K. court in February, leaving debts of some £1.3 billion amid allegations of mismanagement, with its failure reverberating across a range of banks and asset management firms on both sides of the Atlantic.

Its implosion followed the high-profile collapses of First Brands and Tricolor in the U.S. last year, which ignited fears over risky debt underpinning the private credit market — even though those failures related to complex asset-based finance and bank-syndicated debt, rather than traditional private middle-market direct lending.

Anxieties have since spread to U.S. business development companies — investment vehicles managed by private credit firms — amid growing scrutiny over lending to the software sector, which faces disruption from agentic AI.

UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti acknowledged the ongoing stress within private credit this year, particularly in the so-called “semi-liquid” BDC space, where several asset managers have restricted investor redemptions.

“It’s more of a liquidity kind of issue, than necessarily a clear underlying performance issue,” Ermotti told CNBC’s Carolin Roth in an interview on Wednesday.

But UBS, which reported its first-quarter earnings on Wednesday, does “not see any major dislocation or issues” arising from its own private credit investments, according to Ermotti.

The Swiss banking and asset management giant’s exposure to private credit is “well diversified” and “good quality”, amounting to around 0.5% of its balance sheet, he added.

Deutsche Bank, meanwhile, said its private credit exposure has not incurred losses, is “well diversified,” and reflects “strong underwriting standards.”

‘Opaque’

Private credit spillover risks remain a major concern among investment-grade investors, partly due to uncertainty around bank and insurance exposure, according to Bank of America’s latest credit investor survey.

Barnaby Martin, head of European credit strategy at BofA Global Research, said IG investors see the asset exposure of the banks and insurers as “still a bit opaque,” while software loan volatility is also a pressure point.

In contrast, high-yield specialist investors “nearer the fault line” currently appear “a lot more sanguine” on private credit spillover risks, Martin told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe”. Instead, they’re more concerned about high energy prices and inflation, according to the BofA survey.

He explained that while credit concerns in the U.S. center around software risk, distress in Europe is emerging in the chemicals sector, and the impact of China exporting goods and raw materials into the continent.

“That’s what we’ve got to worry about,” Martin added. “That’s where your credit loss problem in Europe is more centered.”

[Derby]

https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-is-losing-e500m-a-day-in-energy-crisis-ursula-von-der-leyen-warns/

Iran war costs EU €500M a day, von der Leyen warns

The ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz has driven up global energy prices.


European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivers a speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on April 29, 2026. | Sebastien Bozon/AFP via Getty Images

Europe is losing nearly €500 million a day as the Middle East conflict drives up fossil fuel costs, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday, as turmoil in the Persian Gulf continues to rattle global energy markets.

“In just 60 days of conflict, our bill for fossil fuel imports has increased by over €27 billion, without a single molecule of additional energy,” she told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. President Donald Trump has instructed aides to prepare for a prolonged blockade of Iran, a strategy aimed at squeezing Tehran’s economy by restricting shipping to and from its ports. The approach risks further disrupting oil and gas flows through the Strait of Hormuz, through which a quarter of global oil trade and significant volumes of natural gas and fertilizers flow.

Von der Leyen framed the conflict as further proof that the EU should accelerate its shift away from imported fossil fuels and electrify faster.

“The way forward is obvious. We must reduce our overdependency on imported fossil fuels and boost our home-grown, affordable, clean energy supply. From renewables to nuclear, in full respect of technology neutrality," she said.

Von der Leyen said the Commission will present an Electrification Action Plan by the summer, including an “ambitious” EU-wide target. A draft Commission agenda seen by POLITICO showed the plan is now expected on June 10, alongside a broader strategy on strengthening energy security.

The Commission president renewed calls for faster progress on the EU’s Grids Package, which is currently being negotiated by EU lawmakers and governments and aims to upgrade infrastructure to handle more renewable power and rising electricity demand.

She also urged closer coordination on diesel and jet fuel reserves, oil stock releases and output from refineries, measures which are part of Brussels' broader response to the energy crisis unveiled by the Commission last Wednesday.

[Derby]

https://www.ft.com/content/19cf1211-f2b7-48bc-ae8b-8c36c8d3da40

Starwood real estate fund halts redemptions as bet on lower interest rates bites

Move comes after fund restricted investors’ liquidity rights two years ago


Barry Sternlicht, Starwood’s billionaire founder and chief executive © Bloomberg

Starwood’s high-profile property fund has halted redemptions as it seeks to prevent a flight of assets amid mounting pressure on its bet that property markets would quickly recover from interest rate rises in 2022 and 2023.

Starwood Real Estate Income Trust, one of the first retail private markets funds, pinned its decision to temporarily suspend most redemptions on interest rates that have “remained high”. The move comes after Sreit had restricted investors’ liquidity rights by more than 80 per cent two years ago.

The issue was “not the real estate,” said Barry Sternlicht, Starwood’s billionaire founder and chief executive, in a letter to shareholders on Wednesday, but rather “the pressure created by elevated redemption requests, which rose quite suddenly when interest rates spiked and remained high”.

Sreit has struggled to recover from a real estate market that has remained weak since interest rates began to creep up four years ago. The fund owns 598 properties across the US.

Sternlicht, in his letter, said Sreit would “reintroduce liquidity when it can be done in a consistent and sustainable way”.

The CEO said Starwood expected “the war with Iran to conclude, oil prices to subside, inflation to stabilize, and for Kevin Warsh to be seated as Fed Chair, supporting a lower interest rate environment”.

“The temporary actions announced today reflect our commitment to making the right long-term decisions for all Sreit shareholders, including the nearly 70 per cent who have never made a redemption request,” Sternlicht said in a statement.

Sreit also cut its distribution from 6.3 per cent to 4.7 per cent to conserve capital.

US hedge fund Saba Capital last month offered to buy 5 per cent of the outstanding shares in Sreit, at a discount of more than 20 per cent of the fund’s most recent stated value.

Two years ago, Starwood limited investors’ ability to redeem their investments after the FT reported that Sreit had tapped its credit facility to support redemptions, rather than selling real estate assets.

The move by Sternlicht comes as similar private credit funds sponsored by the likes of Blue Owl and BlackRock have been forced this year to halt redemptions after investors’ requests breached the 5 per cent threshold.