Why Citi and HPS’s €15 Billion Program Says So Much About Private Credit’s Next Phase

May 18, 2026

Reuters reported today that Citi and BlackRock’s HPS have launched a €15 billion private credit program for direct lending across Europe, the UK, and eventually the Middle East over the next five years. Citi will source the opportunities and HPS will supply the capital. Reuters also noted that Citi set up a similar $25 billion private credit program with Apollo in 2024. 

That headline is worth more than a quick read because it says something bigger about how private credit is evolving. For years, a lot of the conversation focused on asset growth, yield, and how much capital private credit firms could raise. This deal points to the next stage. Private credit is becoming more integrated with the way large banks originate, structure, and distribute financing. 

Why does that matter for people outside the private credit world? Because this is one of the clearest examples of how the market is scaling. Citi still has the banker relationships, the borrower pipeline, and the reach across corporate and sponsor-backed financing. HPS brings a large pool of capital that can move into deals banks may no longer want to hold in the same way. Reuters said the program will target sub-investment-grade debt instruments, while the Financial Times reported the focus includes junior and mezzanine debt for companies and leveraged buyout groups. 

That setup gives you a pretty clean picture of where the market is headed. Banks are not stepping away from the action. They are finding new ways to stay in the flow while private credit managers take on more of the capital role. The result is a market that can keep expanding without relying on the old assumption that one balance sheet has to do everything. 

It also helps explain why private credit keeps getting larger even while scrutiny grows around valuations, loan quality, and liquidity. A program like this is designed to meet demand from corporate borrowers and sponsor clients who want more tailored financing options. Reuters said that demand was a key reason for the launch. The FT added that banks get a new route to serve clients while private credit funds get a more reliable stream of deal flow. 

So where does LPshares fit into that picture?

The short answer is later in the life of the market, once the capital is already in and ownership starts to move.

When private credit gets bigger, more positions eventually need a second chapter. Some holders want liquidity before maturity. Some portfolios get reworked. Some investors want a cleaner route into an existing position rather than only looking at fresh origination. The first phase of market growth is about putting capital to work. The next phase is about what happens when that capital needs a path. That is where secondary infrastructure starts becoming much more important.

That is the opening LPshares is built around. We focus on the part of private markets where an existing holder wants a clearer route and a new accredited buyer wants access to a live position, with sponsor visibility built into the process. As private credit grows through arrangements like Citi and HPS, the need for cleaner ownership transfer does not get smaller. It gets more obvious.

There is also a broader read-through here for private markets as a whole. The more institutionalized private credit becomes, the less useful it is to think about it as some side lane sitting outside the rest of finance. Citi and HPS are building a five-year program across multiple regions. That is infrastructure. And once a market starts building more infrastructure on the way in, it eventually needs better infrastructure on the way out as well. 

Private credit is still sold as a long-duration asset class, and that part is not going away. What is changing is the scale of the ecosystem around it. More capital, more partnerships, and more origination reach all create more future pressure around transfer, liquidity, and access. Citi and HPS just gave the market a very large reminder of that.

LPshares is a secondary marketplace for limited partner interests in private real estate and alternative assets.