New York, February 20, 2026, 14:12 EST — Regular session
- Bank of America shares up about 0.4% in afternoon trade.
- A Reuters report said the bank is lining up $25 billion for private-credit deals.
- Investors are watching liquidity strains in private credit and the next Fed and earnings checkpoints.
Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) shares were up 0.4% at $52.96 by early afternoon on Friday, after closing at $52.77 in the previous session. The stock has traded between $51.83 and $53.00 so far.
The move is small, but the debate around it is not. Big banks are pushing deeper into private credit, and the market is starting to ask where the risks sit when lending shifts into less liquid pockets.
Private credit is lending done off the public markets — loans that are typically held rather than traded, and can be hard to exit quickly when sentiment turns. It has grown as borrowers look for faster financing and as banks hunt new fee streams.
A memo seen by Reuters on Thursday showed Bank of America is setting aside $25 billion for private-credit deals. JPMorgan last year earmarked $50 billion from its balance sheet for private credit, while Goldman Sachs has built a dedicated unit aimed at the same business. (Reuters)
The broader tape was firmer. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF was up about 0.7%, with the financial sector ETF ahead 0.4% and the SPDR bank ETF up about 0.9%; JPMorgan climbed 0.8% and Wells Fargo rose about 1%.
Investors tend to like the logic: keep clients close, keep deal flow moving, and try to earn on capital in places that aren’t already crowded. The harder part is proving the returns survive a rougher credit spell.
Scrutiny around liquidity is the counterweight. Blue Owl shares slid again on Friday, down about 4%, after the firm sold $1.4 billion of loans and permanently removed quarterly redemption rights in one fund; Truist Securities analyst Brian Finneran wrote that investors read the sale as a sign withdrawals had accelerated. Oppenheimer analyst Mitchel Penn said the message was simple: “Nobody is getting a break.” (Reuters)
Bank of America has not laid out how quickly it plans to deploy the $25 billion, or how much risk it will keep versus syndicate. That is where investors will press: economics, controls, and what sits on balance sheet when the music slows.
But private credit has a habit of looking safest right before the cycle turns. If defaults pick up or recovery values fall, returns can flip, and banks can feel it through write-downs and bigger loan-loss cushions — even if deal volume stays healthy.
Rates are still the other swing factor for bank stocks, and the next clear checkpoint is the Fed’s March 17-18 meeting. A shift in rate-cut expectations would move the whole group, not just BAC. (Federal Reserve)
Bank of America is scheduled to report first-quarter results on April 15. That report should give investors a cleaner read on credit trends — and whether the private-credit build is adding risk, or just adding fees. (Bank of America)
