Originating Private Investment-Grade Credit

Marc Rowan: We have built the capacity to originate investment-grade credit. We originate investment-grade credit three different ways.

We call on businesses who want something other than a 10-year bond. So think of clients like AB InBev, think of AirFrance, think of AT&T, investment-grade borrowers who otherwise could go to the bond market but don't for one reason or another.

We own 16 different platforms that lend against aircrafts, that lend against engines, that lend against equipment, that lend against floorplans. 5,000 people come into work every single day and all they do is originate credit.

And we, again, these borrowers, they don't have access to the investment-grade bond market, even if they are in fact investment grade. We aggregate all of their lending, we securitize it, and we keep the investment grade portions for ourselves.

The third way we originate is in partnership with the banking system. Everywhere in the world, regulators are making a choice – how their economy is being financed. Credit is a function of GDP, and regulators and governments have two choices. Credit can come from the banking system, or it can come from the investment marketplace. There's no third choice.

Everywhere in the world, people are choosing more from the investment marketplace, less from the banking system. And so we have become partners with the banking system.