Private credit ·
Kroll and StepStone add three PIK indicators to their private credit benchmarks, covering 28,000+ direct lending instruments back to 2012
Kroll and StepStone launched three payment-in-kind indicators in the Kroll StepStone Private Credit Benchmarks: PIK as a percentage of interest income, the proportion of PIK loans by deal count, and the proportion by outstanding principal, across the U.S. and Europe and by sector and obligor size. The data covers more than 28,000 direct lending instruments, 18,000 deals and 13,000 borrowers, with history from 2012. Across loans originated globally in the previous 12 months, PIK was 2.86% of interest income as of October 10, 2026, compared with 6.67% across outstanding loans at the end of Q2 2026; Kroll says PIK use is currently moderating rather than accelerating.
Why it matters for deal teams: A market-wide PIK baseline lets a portfolio or diligence team compare its own non-cash interest share against peers by sector and borrower size instead of against a handful of public BDC filings.
Source: Kroll press release; ABF Journal ↗ · more ↗