Jaime Dimon is worried about private credit. Here's a look at the fast growing Wall Street business and the risks it poses

(Credit: Getty Images)

The CEO of JPMorgan Chase is the latest to signal the alarm about the booming private credit market. Jamie Dimon told a banking conference this week that problems could bubble up if weaker players in the sector lead customers to get caught up in an illiquid asset class they don’t understand. "Retail clients [will] circle the block and call their senators and congressmen and there could be help to pay,” Dimon said. (Curiously, JPMorgan Chase is looking to buy a private credit firm and tried to scoop up Monroe Capital but didn't succeed, Bloomberg reported earlier this month.)

Despite Dimon’s misgivings, there’s no denying that private credit has become very big business on Wall Street as the IMF reported that assets topped $2.1 trillion globally last year with most of that in the U.S. BlackRock, meanwhile, expects the global private debt market to hit $3.5 trillion in AUM by the end of 2028.