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Private markets marketing & comms pros are operating in a very different public dialogue than they were before the collapse of First Brands. In the weeks and months that followed, discussion of private credit moved from a more specialized financial story into a broader conversation about risk, liquidity, valuations, transparency, and even the health of the economy. Even though the most acutely negative headlines about redemptions have eased, attention on private markets has not returned to where it started.
Highwire recently conducted research that confirms a widely-held industry perception that private credit coverage spiked over the last year, inviting intense criticism of the asset class. More importantly, it also found that while attention did subside, it ultimately receded to a much higher baseline, signaling that scrutiny has become a more persistent part of the public dialogue around private markets.
The Moment the Narrative Cracked
Our report, What Comes After the Cockroaches?, chronicles the shift in narrative that occurred after the collapses of First Brands and Tricolor in 2025, which raised questions about whether those failures were isolated or signs of broader credit stress.
Following the failures, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon warned that when you see one “cockroach,” there are probably more, language that quickly became shorthand for concerns about problems potentially hiding elsewhere in credit markets. That comment helped give the broader conversation even more momentum as attention moved beyond a handful of distressed companies.
From there, scrutiny widened. Firms were increasingly being asked to explain risk, valuations, liquidity, and the health of the asset class to audiences paying much closer attention than before.
What We Wanted to Understand
That change prompted Highwire to examine how the private credit narrative evolved, where it traveled across private markets, and how financial institutions and executives positioned themselves as scrutiny increased.
Our research into private markets coverage found:
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A new level of attention: Private credit coverage has settled at a new baseline more than three times higher than before the First Brands and Tricolor collapses
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More scrutiny: Narrative sentiment remains distinctly negative, holding around 31% negative compared to just 19% prior to the defaults.
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Contagion into private equity: The negative spotlight is no longer isolated to credit, with private equity absorbing the bulk of the spillover as negative adjacent coverage rose to 15%.
The Opportunity Now Is to Shape What Comes Next
For senior Financial Services marketing and communications leaders, the question now is whether the approach that worked before this period of heightened scrutiny is equipped for the environment they are navigating today.
The market has yet to settle into a clear recovery narrative, which creates room for credible organizations to help shape what comes next. That means understanding where your organization sits in the broader conversation, what your audiences need to hear, which voices are best positioned to communicate, and how business objectives should shape the strategy.
Highwire helps Financial Services organizations identify the narrative territory they can credibly own and translate that position into reputation strategy, executive visibility, thought leadership, earned media, and integrated communications.
Explore the full research in What Comes After the Cockroaches?
