Shadow credit and the private, middle market

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze a particular segment of the US “shadow banking” market and its revival since the recent credit crisis, namely, lending to the private Middle Market, defined as financings of $5-100 million to non-public, unrated operating entities or pools of assets with not more than $50 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. Design/methodology/approach – The analysis includes a review survey of a segment of capital markets and primary evidence from direct participation in two examples of actual private, non-bank lending between 2011 and 2012 executed by a Middle Market US investment bank. Findings – While there have been considerable challenges, historically, in providing credit for small-and mid-sized businesses in the USA, private Middle Market capital is (post the recent credit crisis) finding opportunities, notwithstanding, constraints imposed by market and other forces, including systemic crises, cyclical forces and changes in regulatory regimes. Research limitations/implications – Any generalization is limited due to the absence of disaggregated survey data for the US capital markets and the limited examples examined. Practical implications – The capital markets segment and non-bank financial institutions examined in this paper are developing as an alternative source of credit/lending from commercial banks for mid-sized companies. Social implications – The mid-sized firms financed by the shadow credit market are a significant source of job creation in the US economy making non-bank credit a lifeline to job growth in the financial crisis. Originality/value – Direct participation is unique to the firms studied. Value is in developing a general framework to analyze different segments of the capital market.