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Good morning from the City AM liveblog team. The war of words between banks and private credit ratcheted up on Wednesday, after a trio of bosses from private lenders rounded on claims their industry played a pivotal role in a string of recent debt-related collapses, branding it “misinformation”. During a fiery evidence session in the House of Lords, executives from alternative investment giants Blackstone, Ares and Apollo said that far from causing the next credit crisis, their industry was helping prevent one, adding the lending landscape was safer now than the previous bank-dominated environment. Tristram Leach, co-head of European credit at Apollo, told peers that banks by their nature had an “asset-liability mismatch”, which meant the systemic risk posed by weakening credit conditions had been greatly “reduced by virtue of private capital playing a role alongside” them. His comments were echoed by Daniel Leiter, global head of liquid credit strategies at Blackstone, who said “the system will be more stable whenever we do go through economic shocks, because now, away from just relying on the banking system, private credit can provide a source of financing through difficult times.” “What is happening in private credit is safer… than on banks’ balance sheets,” he added. Here’s a summary of our top headlines from yesterday: Nvidia hits historic $5tn market cap GSK shares jump as profit upgrade defies tariff gloom WH Smith delays results by more than a month as accounting struggles persist Pound falls to 2023 low against Euro as Budget jitters spike Another London blow as British engineering firm Doncasters plots New York IPO Santander UK boss: Government must overrule FCA on motor finance Keir Starmer refuses to rule out income tax raid at the Budget
