HSBC Holdings plc [LSE: HSBA] stated on Friday that it remains committed to its private credit investment programme, issuing a formal clarification after a Financial Times report said the bank had paused a $4 billion plan to invest its own capital into its private credit funds.

“We are committed to our asset management’s offering in private credit funds,” an HSBC spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed statement, confirming the bank’s long-term strategic intent while stopping short of specifying when or how the capital would be deployed.

The FT report, citing two sources familiar with the decision-making process, said HSBC had not transferred any private credit funds as yet and had no current plans to do so, raising questions about the pace of delivery on a strategy the bank announced just eleven months ago.

HSBC unveiled the $4 billion private credit investment plan in June 2025 as part of a broader push to grow its asset management division and give institutional investors access to private markets through HSBC’s credit funds.

However, the planned capital deployment has run into a more complex regulatory environment, with financial regulators worldwide becoming increasingly concerned about banks’ direct exposure to the $3.5 trillion private credit industry, which has grown rapidly in recent years and now attracts scrutiny over lending standards and portfolio concentration.

The FT report arrived at an already difficult moment for HSBC’s private credit ambitions, coming barely a week after the bank disclosed a $400 million hit linked to the collapse of British mortgage lender Market Financial Solutions, an event that added to private credit market jitters both within the bank and across the sector.

HSBC Chairman Brendan Nelson told shareholders following the Market Financial Solutions loss that the lender had “substantially completed” a review of its lending policies and practices, a statement intended to reassure investors that the bank had a clear-eyed understanding of its risk exposure in the space.

The timing of the pause is also notable in the context of broader market dynamics: wealthy investors have been queuing up to withdraw capital from private credit vehicles in recent months, driven by growing concerns about weakening lending standards and by fears that artificial intelligence-driven disruption in the software industry could severely impair the value of assets in funds where technology companies represent a significant portion of the underlying portfolio.

HSBC shares were trading at GBX 1,328.10 in London, down 1.62% on the session, as investors weighed the private credit news against a backdrop of broader caution around the bank’s alternative asset ambitions.