The OakNorth blog

Early years education more often than not doesn’t get the attention it deserves. Not from policymakers, not from lenders, and not from the media. And yet the numbers speak for themselves: fewer than one in three local authorities in the UK currently have enough childcare places for children under two, and the DfE estimates the sector needs around 70,000 new places just to meet current demand.

OakNorth’s Ian Fairclough on how AI is reshaping lending decisions for software and technology businesses – and what it means for sponsors and founders raising debt.

Going into residential care is a significant life change. Understanding how your savings are treated before you need to means you can plan ahead, not react under pressure. Here, we cover the basics of how your savings are treated in a care funding assessment in England. The rules differ in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, so if you are based outside England it is worth checking the rules that apply to you specifically.

Last June, at SuperReturn International, the industry’s annual gathering for private equity and credit, the mood around private credit was bullish. Nearly every panel highlighted the relative strength and opportunity in private credit – a golden era, driven by high base rates, public market retreat, and strong LP appetite for yield. 

Today, the tone has shifted sharply. JPMorgan has been marking down the value of software loans sitting in the financing portfolios of private credit clients.