BlackRock, Blackstone, and several other US private credit funds face redemption pressures, triggering liquidity limits

Gate News reports that on March 8, several U.S. private credit funds faced redemption pressures in the first quarter of 2026. The BlackRock HPS Corporate Lending Fund (approximately $26 billion) received redemption requests for about 9.3% of its fund shares, roughly $1.2 billion, triggering its quarterly repurchase limit for the first time (original limit 5%), with actual redemptions around $620 million. Blackstone’s BCRED received redemption requests for about 7.9% of its fund shares, approximately $3.7 billion. Blackstone increased its repurchase limit from 5% to 7% and injected about $400 million of internal capital, over $150 million of which came from executives and senior staff. Blue Owl’s OBDC II (around $1.6 billion) sold approximately $1.4 billion of assets to North American pension and insurance institutions and changed its quarterly redemption framework from 5% to a maximum of about 30%, involving around 128 companies across 27 industries. Fitch data from February shows that its tracked perpetual non-listed Business Development Companies (BDCs) had an average redemption rate of 4.5% of NAV in Q4 2025, significantly up from 1.6% in the previous quarter. Institutional protective put positions on credit ETFs—financial instruments used for hedging risks—reached a record high. S&P Global Ratings has identified “AI-driven tech bond issuance, AI valuation risks, and rising leverage among non-bank institutions” as key variables affecting credit market liquidity in 2026.