A team from Hogan Lovells Cadwalader attended this year’s Fund Finance Association (FFA) Global Leadership Summit, from September 14 to 16 2026 in Albufeira, Portugal. The event once again convened senior professionals from sponsors, lenders and advisors to network and reflect at a critical juncture for the private funds ecosystem.
Discussions and keynotes focused on both macroeconomic trends and challenges, continuing market evolution, and the rapid advance of artificial intelligence (AI) and allied technologies.
Participants showed cautious optimism for the fund finance outlook, notwithstanding undoubted challenges driven by macroeconomic volatility. While the potential for shocks remains significant, fiscal headroom is limited in many economies and the monetary cycle is shifting to higher rates, there was reflection that recent European growth data has been encouraging, reflecting considerable robustness in the face of headwinds. Challenges in the exit and fundraising environments continue, but capital remains highly available for fund finance, and the industry continues to innovate to meet diversifying demands for liquidity.
There was naturally considerable discussion of the fund finance market itself and its continued innovation. Trends highlighted by speakers and participants included:
- NAV financing, a key growth segment in recent years, is maturing and can now be considered a mainstream tool for liquidity and structural leverage. Parts of the market, such as LTV-based liquidity facilities, are now displaying a degree of structural standardisation and regularised deal flow. On the other hand, uses for NAV financing continue to grow, with a diversifying range of portfolio types being financed beyond the traditional buyout, secondaries and credit fund sectors.
- Sponsors’ desire to secure stable liquidity solutions across the fund lifecycle in an unpredictable environment is increasing the uptake of hybrid facilities, combining capital call and NAV borrowing bases.
- Succession and change in the private capital industry itself are among the factors driving significant growth in GP stake transactions and “GP line” financings.
- Institutional capital is being drawn to fund finance in increasing volumes and this is changing the product mix, with much focus on collateralised fund obligation (CFO), rated feeder, and rated tranche structures. These trends were recognised as innovations deriving from the US but with rapidly increasing interest in Europe.
- Competition between capital providers is intense, but there is growing collaboration, reflecting the scale and sophistication of the market. Banks, funds, and institutions specialise and combine to service different tiers of the capital stack, whether revolving or liquidity facilities, structural term loans, securitisation tranches, or preferred equity pieces.
The growth of artificial intelligence was a core theme of the conference, discussed at almost every table. Participants reflected that, in many respects, the fund finance industry itself faces similar opportunities and challenges from AI as do other sectors.
AI is greatly increasing the pace with which data can be analysed, synthesised and reported, and participants already reported enhancing their workflow with AI, using new tools to provide analysis for decision-making and create clean reporting dashboards. However, there in an enduring need to ensure human scrutiny and governance of information and analysis, and emerging fund finance professionals and advisors will need to be trained in how to supervise and interrogate actions and analyses they may no longer personally perform.
Overall, AI can be expected to change the role of human capital in fund finance, but not to displace it. With many tasks automated, professionals can expect to have more time for formulating strategy, identifying and originating opportunities, negotiation, structuring, and relationship development. As has been seen in other sectors, automation can be expected to increase demand as it increases the capacity for higher deal throughput. Looking to the wider economy, while the challenges of AI for some existing portfolios is recognised, there is also enormous scope for continued private investment in new segments opened up by AI, including advanced robotics and autonomous vehicles.
Overall, participants left the event confident in the robustness of an industry that has proven as capable of learning and strengthening from challenge as it is adaptable to new opportunities.