PARTNER CONTENT
By Aani Nerlekar, Managing Director, Solutions Management, SS&C Advent
The credit markets remain a key strategic growth sector for investors, offering predictable returns in a market characterized by volatility and heightened interest rates. With global private credit AUM projected to reach $5 trillion by 2029, the market’s appetite for high yield shows few signs of abating. Borrowers who leverage direct lending or private credit are benefiting from this growth, gaining streamlined access to liquidity to fuel capital expenditures and investments.
As the market matures, asset managers are evolving alongside it. Firms that historically focus on equities or traditional fixed income are launching private credit strategies to diversify portfolios and drive alpha. Increasingly, many of these firms are also stepping into roles once dominated by agent banks, offering more integrated services across origination, administration, and reporting.
This convergence is reshaping not only investment strategies but also operational models.
Credit’s operational complexity
Unlike many asset classes, loans are defined by nuance. Each instrument brings its own documentation, covenant structures, payment schedules, and lifecycle events. For operations teams, managing loan investments requires deep expertise across origination, servicing, and event processing—particularly as amendments, restructurings, and borrower-driven changes occur over time.
When an asset manager assumes the role of administrative agent, that complexity increases significantly. Beyond managing the investor’s position, the agent is responsible for coordinating the broader lending ecosystem, including borrower communications, lender reporting, disbursements, collections, and ongoing lifecycle management.
In short, operational excellence becomes a competitive differentiator.
Roles converge: Loan origination by asset managers
Many firms performing the agency function today outsource or white label loan origination. Others choose to keep this function in-house to maintain greater control over quality and ensure consistency. Agency responsibilities are extensive, encompassing loan documentation and setup, disbursement, payment collection, borrower and lender reporting, and lifecycle event management.
Regardless of the approach, the scope of agency responsibilities is extensive. The process spans loan documentation and setup, funding and settlement, payment processing, borrower and lender reporting, and the management of complex credit events throughout the loan’s life. As asset managers assume these responsibilities, operational silos that once existed between lending and investment teams are becoming increasingly difficult to maintain.
A dual operational reality: The technology challenges
Historically, the agent and fund accounting roles have existed in separate technology realms. Agency platforms are designed to handle the administration of managing both the borrowers and lenders on the loan. In contrast, portfolio accounting systems are built to support core fund and investor accounting, reporting and performance analytics functions.
This fractured process slows down workflows. Transactions are often processed multiple times across systems, which increases reconciliation effort, introduces operational risk, and delays access to timely, decision-ready data. For firms operating at scale, these inefficiencies can limit agility just as competition in private credit intensifies.
The case for integration
To compete in today’s credit markets, firms need to rethink this dual-system mode. A unified platform that integrates loan agency workflows with portfolio, fund, and investor accounting can fundamentally change how operations teams work.
An integrated approach eliminates duplicate processing, streamlines data flows, and ensures that loan activity is reflected simultaneously across agency and investment records. The result is greater accuracy, faster reporting, and improved transparency for both internal teams and external stakeholders. The system should automatically and simultaneously update the administrative agent’s ledger and the investor’s portfolio, ensuring immediate accuracy and efficiency.
For credit managers acting as both lenders and agents, integration also enables greater flexibility in structuring loans and maintaining end-to-end control over the loan lifecycle. That control, paired with real-time insight, allows firms to respond more quickly to credit events, regulatory demands, and investor expectations.
Modern operations for a maturing market
Bridging the operational divide between agency and investment functions is no longer an option and a prerequisite for growth. Firms that invest in modern, integrated platforms will be better positioned to deliver operational excellence, manage risk, and unlock the full potential of private credit in an increasingly competitive market.
Aani Nerlekar, Managing Director, Solutions Management, SS&C Advent – Aani is managing director of solutions management at SS&C Advent. In this role, he leads the strategic direction and solution architecture for SS&C Advent’s alternative investment technology platforms. Aani helps hedge funds, private equity firms, and asset managers achieve operational alpha by modernizing their front-to-back office infrastructure. Since joining SS&C in 2011, he has been instrumental in the evolution of flagship platforms, including Geneva® and, more recently, Eze Eclipse, focusing on solving complex accounting and operational challenges. A frequent industry speaker, Aani regularly shares expert insights on institutional-grade scaling, private credit trends, and the digital transformation of the investment landscape.
