JPMorgan has moved about $2 billion of private credit loans so far in 2026. That roughly 20-loan pace, traders say, eclipses any prior year and follows the bank's 2025 pledge of $50 billion in balance-sheet capacity for direct lending and nearly $15 billion of co-lender support. Executives including Sanjay Jhamna and Jake Pollack are running the trading and financing push while the asset manager seeks institutional seed commitments, according to Market Briefs and Bloomberg. The moves come as CNBC reported on March 11, 2026 markdowns in the bank’s financing book and abnormally high redemptions at managers such as Blue Owl and Blackstone.

Read as a single move, the $2 billion tally is more than a headline. It signals that JPMorgan is converting a traditionally illiquid corner of credit into an active trading franchise, and it's doing so with the firm’s balance sheet behind it. Market Briefs reported that JPMorgan’s credit trading and financing teams have moved about 20 private loans this year and that the bank has increased capital support for the effort. That level of throughput, traders say, tops every previous year for the desk.

Why the bank is trading private loans

JPMorgan publicly framed the strategy last year. In a 2025 corporate release the firm said it had committed $50 billion of balance-sheet capacity to direct lending and nearly $15 billion of co-lender capacity, and that it had deployed over $10 billion across more than 100 private credit transactions since 2021. The release described private credit as a roughly $2 trillion market and quoted Kevin Foley, global head of Capital Markets, on the bank’s origination scale. That language positions the trading push as an extension of an origination engine, not a short-term market bet.

But trading private loans is a different business from originating them. Private credit traditionally lived on fund balance sheets until maturity. That model limited liquidity and left pricing opaque. JPMorgan’s trading desk has begun to intermediate transactions, matching sellers and buyers to create liquidity and generate fee income. Market Briefs noted the desk could scale further if private credit behaves more like publicly traded bonds.

The bank is leaning on co-lending arrangements and its commercial client relationships to originate and syndicate large direct loans, the corporate release said. Executives named by reporting are central to execution. Market Briefs identified Sanjay Jhamna, who oversees the bank’s credit trading, and Jake Pollack, who runs credit financing, as key to the trading effort. Bloomberg reported that George Gatch and Bob Michele, senior executives at JPMorgan Asset Management, said the asset manager is in talks with institutional investors to raise several billion dollars and has secured some commitments to seed a larger private credit strategy. Bloomberg also said Jeff Bracchitta, formerly co-head of direct lending in the commercial and investment bank, was brought into the asset manager to run the expansion.

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Liquidity stress and the risk reset

The timing of the trading ramp is notable. Markets for private credit are under pressure. CNBC reported on March 11, 2026 that JPMorgan’s trading and financing businesses marked down the value of loans held as collateral in financings to private credit clients, mainly loans to software companies. The reported markdowns reduced how much those firms can borrow on a back-leverage basis and in some cases prompted margin or collateral calls.

CNBC described the moves as preemptive, driven by shifts in market valuations rather than realized losses, and cited concerns about how rapid advances in AI could disrupt parts of the software sector.

That same CNBC report flagged abnormally high retail redemptions at private credit managers including Blue Owl and Blackstone. Those outflows raise pressure on liquidity across the industry and create incentives for banks and trading desks to price and to move exposures more quickly. JPMorgan’s trading activity, in other words, is both a response to and a contributor to a broader repricing of private credit risk.

Executives at the bank have pushed back on systemic-risk concerns. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon reiterated the bank’s view that private credit doesn't pose a systemic risk, echoing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s public statements. That defense matters for regulators and large institutional clients. But internal moves to mark collateral and to increase capital support for trading show the bank is managing day-to-day book sensitivity while it grows capacity.

The institutional mechanics are changing as well as the headline numbers. By intermediating trades, JPMorgan can give sellers a route to liquidity and give buyers clearer pricing.

That shift could widen participation in the asset class if more investors accept secondary pricing. It also creates fee pools for banks that can run matching platforms and finance packages. For private credit funds, middle-market borrowers, and banks that provide leverage to funds, the change raises both opportunity and new funding risks.

The bank’s public announcements, the Market Briefs tally, and the recent reporting form a single trackable thread. JPMorgan’s 2025 corporate release announced the $50 billion direct-lending commitment and nearly $15 billion of co-lender capacity, Market Briefs counted about 20 loans and roughly $2 billion moved so far in 2026, and CNBC reported the March 11, 2026 markdowns and industry redemptions. Taken together, the items show a deliberate push into trading private credit while adjusting exposures amid market stress.

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Watch JPMorgan's next quarterly filings and private-credit marks for signs of whether the trading push eases or amplifies stress across managers and financing desks.

This article was created with AI assistance.