Private credit is so hot right now, the execs at SALT were raving about it. BlackRock and Owl Rock are taking advantage of banks’ pain to win more of this booming part of Wall Street. Hi. I''m Aaron Weinman . Private credit is so hot, it was the talk of this week''s SALT hedge fund conference. Private credit is a pocket of the lending market that has grown to about $1.25 trillion in assets, according to Preqin data. Private-credit funds lend — typically to leveraged companies — for myriad reasons, from financing acquisitions to servicing borrowers'' working-capital requirements. In their infancy, these funds stepped in for regulated banks. They provided small loans (say between $50 million to $200 million) to riskier companies that banks avoided, and often negotiated extras in their credit agreements like seats on their boards. Private-credit funds plied their trade in the so-called middle market, and left banks to work on billion-dollar financings. Now, equipped with trillions of dollars in dry powder, private-credit is taking market share from big banks more than ever before. Let''s take a look at the opportunities — dissected by Insider''s Alyson Velati here — that private-credit giants like Owl Rock and Ares Management have found in this year''s choppy credit markets.