On September 27, 2018, Bill Wagner was quoted in an article in Bloomberg about how shadow banks as alternative lenders are offering U.S. leveraged borrowers a greater choice of debt than banks.
Mr. Wagner noted that through being able to offer a new approach to loans, such lenders are better able to compete with the more established leveraged loan product offered by banks.
The shadow banking sector, which includes boutique banks, private-equity investors, and other financial firms, "have demonstrated a unique flexibility in their approach to providing credit structures," Wagner said. "Alternative capital providers are here to stay," he stated.
Wagner noted the bespoke terms that may be offered by an alternative lender, include the following: fee structures that may benefit the lender, but also provide a funding benefit to the borrower in the near term; revenue sharing arrangements when the borrower is at an early state in its development; and the "ability to entertain or put into place deals that were not quite the same vanilla structure we had before."