A huge thank you to all the delegates, speakers and sponsors who helped make this year's ACC Global Summit in London such a success.

The event brought together leaders from across the private credit industry for a day of insightful discussions on the state of the market, emerging opportunities and the challenges facing managers and investors.

We've distilled the discussions into five key takeaways:

1. Using data to segment and understand risk 

Delegates were treated to an exclusive first look at the latest ACC Financing the Economy research, which points to a market in generally good health across key risk and resilience indicators, showing double-digit percentage growth yr/yr and with significant headroom for further growth. But a central theme of our opening panel was that the term 'private credit' is increasingly of limited use without further distinctions by strategy, borrower type, geography and seniority. Historical investor returns remain competitive with other private market assets and public credit markets, while available portfolio data continues to point to more stability than stress. Understanding where risks are concentrated, and where opportunities are emerging, increasingly requires looking beyond market-wide averages. Those unable to attend won't have to wait long to see the findings – watch this space. 

2. Invest in the back office – your future self will thank you 

Transparency is consistently near the top of investors' expectations of private credit managers. But delivering it requires more than simply making additional information available. Our programme explored what this means in practice across secondaries and continuation vehicles, valuation, reporting, restructuring and manager selection. Across these discussions, a common message emerged: investment in middle- and back-office infrastructure is increasingly a source of competitive advantage. High-quality data, robust processes and effective reporting can shorten transaction and fundraising timelines, strengthen risk management, respond more effectively to client requests and build durable investor relationships. As the market matures, operational capabilities are becoming just as important to commercial success as investment capabilities. 

3. The Boy Scout approach to AI: be prepared 

Few speakers were prepared to predict the full implications of AI, but the Boy Scout motto of 'be prepared' offered a useful guide to how managers are approaching the issue. Indeed, the conference coincided with two reminders of the opportunities and risks involved: another blockbuster AI financing transaction and fresh speculation about an industry facing AI-driven disruption (banking, in case you were wondering). Against this backdrop, pragmatism continues to prevail, with signs that some of the initial alarmism surrounding AI is beginning to subside as borrowers and investors become more familiar with the technology, its potential applications and the risks it presents. Private credit managers are assessing how AI could affect their existing borrowers, identifying business models vulnerable to disruption and incorporating these assessments into underwriting and ongoing monitoring. Meanwhile, those financing AI-related capital expenditure are focusing on the assets, cash flows and contractual protections underpinning their investments. Greater familiarity may be helping to replace speculation with more informed assessments of risk, but the importance of disciplined underwriting and proactive risk management remains unchanged. 

4. Meeting investors where they are 

Insurance and retail investors continue to attract considerable attention as sources of capital for private credit. Demand remains encouraging, but converting that interest into durable allocations requires more than attractive investment returns. Both investor groups have distinct needs around regulation, tax, liquidity, product structure, transparency and reporting. Insurance investors must consider asset-liability matching and prudential requirements, while products targeting individual investors must carefully balance access to private markets with appropriate liquidity arrangements and clear expectations about the underlying assets. The message from our discussions was that managers who design products around these requirements, rather than expecting investors to adapt to existing structures, will be better positioned to succeed. For the wider industry, clearly explaining how different products manage these trade-offs will be increasingly important as regulatory and public scrutiny grows. 

5. Back to the future with Asset-Based Finance 

Asset-Based Finance (ABF) is often presented as one of private credit's newest frontiers. With a potential investment universe spanning everything from physical assets to royalties and intellectual property, it is certainly among its most diverse. But our speakers offered a different perspective on what is driving its appeal. At its heart, ABF involves understanding a business's financing needs, identifying the assets and cash flows that support its operations, and structuring funding around them. The underlying principles are well established, even if the range of assets, financing structures and investment opportunities continues to expand. Seen this way, ABF is less a radical departure for private credit than a modern application of a longstanding approach to financing businesses. Back to the future, perhaps – or simply Financing the Economy.