Finance Association’s 14th Annual Global Fund Finance Symposium 2025: Key Takeaways from Panel Discussions

The Annual Global Fund Finance Symposium was held in Miami from 26-28 February 2025. The symposium typically brings together all major market participants in fund finance and this year was no exception, with over 2,500 delegates attending.

The symposium was a great opportunity to network and connect with market participants. Speaker panels covered, among other things, market updates, trends in secondaries, NAV lending, securitisations and non-bank lending; not to mention key notes from Ryan Reynolds and Tom Brady.

Please see below a brief list of key insights heard during various panel discussions.

1. General Market Update
   • The fund finance market has matured into a trillion dollar plus industry and remains attractive to institutional investors and non-bank lenders. The market continues to evolve and mature, with both banks and non-bank lenders expanding their reach across a wider range of asset classes and fund structures. Fund sponsors and LPs are becoming increasingly comfortable with subscription lines and NAV facilities, leading to broader adoption and refinement of terms.
   • The current environment remains borrower-friendly, with strong demand for fund financing solutions. However, relationships remain key – collaboration and open communication among lenders, borrowers, fund sponsors, and LPs are more important than ever. Transparency and alignment of expectations help ensure smooth execution of financing arrangements.
   • While banks and non-bank lenders offer similar financing tools, their roles and strategic objectives may differ when partnering with fund sponsors. Regardless of the lender type, maintaining rigorous due diligence and underwriting standards remains a priority.
   • Concerns about the ILPA’s guidance on NAV lending have changed and the guidance should be viewed as a helpful tool formalising existing practices with LPs and improving reporting and disclosure. Additionally, with the release of the ILPA guidance, we may start to see increased disclosures about fund financing tools in fund governing documents, providing greater visibility into how these facilities are used throughout a fund’s lifecycle.
   • The use of securitisations in fund finance is gaining steam as a viable product and structuring tool is gaining.
   • Pipeline will remain strong for 2025 especially among larger asset managers who can invest for longer periods.
   • As the industry matures, we're also seeing a rise in specialized service providers, including technology and data analytics firms, which are helping to streamline operations and enhance transparency.
2. Hedging and Fund Risk Management
   • Funds will continue to look at and formalise foreign currency exchange hedging or interest rate hedging strategies to increase returns and mitigate risks and exposures to volatility.
   • Hedge providers will continue to seek protections through (among others) NAV termination triggers. That said, the parties will need to strike a balance between inclusion of erroneous NAV triggers and flexibility for the fund to manage (including certain and dispositions) its investments over the life of the fund.
   • Parties will continue to focus and consider a host of factors when structuring fund hedging solutions which may include:
     • Restrictions in the fund documents.
     • Margining and clearing considerations.
     • Identity of the hedge provider.
     • Applicable regulatory environment.
3. Syndication
   • The lender universe has broadened as a result of the continued rise of institutional capital and growing demand for ratings which has opened bigger pools of capital from banks and insurers. The syndication market will continue to grow especially for longer dated facilities and term loan structures.
   • Sponsors will continue to work closely with arrangers to carefully select the syndicate of lenders as a result of the supply exceeding demand.
4. Private Credit
   • While the private credit market has grown significantly, this market is still at the early stages in the fund financing space. Banks’ view on private credit has also changed; where previously banks viewed private credit as a competitor, they now see them as potential partners.
   • In terms of longer-term outlook, the panel’s view was that the growth for private credit will come as individual investors start to play a bigger role.
5. The Future of Securitisation in Fund Finance
   • The panel discussed the securitisation of LPs’ interests (CFOs) and the securitisation of LPs commitments.
   • CFOs allows managers to raise capital for underlying funds more efficiently and helps managing risk diversification requirements. As a result, there will continue to be a key focus on the absence of limitations to the transfers of claims and/or of confidentiality restrictions in the underlying loan documents.
   • Capital call securitisation will also increase and help address constraints resulting from the growing capital requirements regulations. Securitization offers funding solutions for GPs and fund managers, is well tested and offers a lot of contractual freedom. We will see further growth in this area.

This communication is for general information only. It is not intended, nor should it be relied upon, as legal advice.