For much of the market, credit views have traditionally stopped at the issuer level, leaving investors to translate those opinions into decisions on individual bonds. Our new Security-level Recommendations (SLRs) close that gap by delivering precise, bond-level insight that aligns research directly with real-world portfolio decisions.

As Chris Snow, Global Head of Research at ���׶���Ƶ, puts it:

“Security-level Recommendations provide a more direct path from idea generation to implementation. Rather than starting with a research note and then mapping down to a bond, clients can screen our views at the individual security level and move quickly into the research most relevant to the decision.”

Why It Matters

Credit markets move quickly, and clients need research that is easy to act on. SLRs extend ���׶���Ƶ’ established issuer-level recommendations down to individual securities, giving clients greater precision when expressing a view and selecting the bonds that best reflect that conviction.

With our consistent recommendation framework, SLRs can help clients:

• Translate research into implementation: Align conviction with the specific securities that express the view.
• Accelerate relative-value triage: Compare opportunities across structures, maturities, and recommendation types using a consistent framework.
• Identify opportunity sets: Surface patterns and themes across issuers and industries to prioritize deeper work where it matters.
• Strengthen the investment process: Improve consistency in internal discussions, documentation, and execution readiness.

A New Way to Track Opportunities

Behind the scenes, analysts assess opportunities across issuers, maturities, and capital structures, then track and assign recommendations using proprietary tooling.

For clients, those recommendations come to life in the��Secondary Screener, which offers a new way to track opportunities at the security level. Instead of working from a broad issuer view alone, clients can now screen, filter, and compare individual securities in one place to identify the opportunities most aligned with their needs.

Through the Secondary Screener, clients can:

• Screen and filter securities across the recommendation universe.
• Compare opportunities across structures, maturities, and recommendation types.
• Segment by issuer, industry, and instrument characteristics.
• Prioritize the securities most relevant for deeper research and execution decisions.

Designed for Client Workflows

Built on ���׶���Ƶ’ global research footprint of 1,200+ issuers, SLRs provide access to 14,000+ recommendations, helping clients review opportunities systematically and monitor them through saved views and watchlists.��SLRs are available through the ���׶���Ƶ platform and can also fit into broader client workflows via to API once available.

The Bottom Line

Security-level Recommendations give clients a more direct way to move from research views to specific security decisions. Combined with the Secondary Screener, they make it easier to track opportunities, compare bonds, and zero in on the ideas that matter most.

Ready to explore the new SLRs and more? Request a demo below today.

Investment firm SIGNAL focuses on opportunistic credit and special situations across private and public markets in Europe. Co-founder and CIO Elad Shraga spoke to LFI about the degradation of underwriting standards in the private credit space, default rates, and why he is more positive on AI challenging software business models than the rest of the market.

LFI: Given the crises the global economy has been facing, why haven’t we seen an increase in distressed and stressed debt financing over the last few years?

Shraga: Underwriting standards in direct lending have materially shifted over the past three to four years, reflecting a “natural” evolution as the market adapted to changing conditions. After the challenges of early 2022, the sector delivered a strong three-year run, which reduced investor focus on a potential distress cycle and led fund managers to stop actively seeking stressed and distressed opportunities – resulting in limited allocations to that segment…

Navigating the distressed market can feel like trying to price a moving target: new filings hit the docket overnight, a single hearing can reshape recoveries, and crucial details are often buried in hundreds of pages of legalese. For leveraged finance investors and credit teams, the pain is the same: too much information, not enough signal, and not enough time to figure out what actually changes the trade. That urgency came through clearly in our March 19 “US Bankruptcy: Hot topics in bankruptcy 1Q26” webinar, where panelists returned again and again to how quickly documentation issues, liability management exercises (LMEs), litigation, and even venue fights can alter outcomes of distressed credit. That’s why timely, structured coverage matters: to translate court-driven developments into clear, actionable insight from day one through emergence and beyond.

In 2025, ���׶���Ƶ launched dedicated Bankruptcy coverage, powered by LevFin Insights (LFI), focused on Chapter 7, 11, and 15 cases. Until now, we targeted cases with at least $200 million in funded debt, but that universe has now expanded to a lower coverage threshold of $100 million+, significantly increasing the number of restructurings we track. This broader lens is designed to capture the situations investors monitor most closely, particularly as the market digests the knock-on effects of aggressive documentation and LME activity, a theme highlighted during the webinar by Marc Heimowitz and ���׶���Ƶ’ Ian Feng. Practically, this means more day-one launch reports on newly filed cases, more in-the-courtroom coverage across a broader set of hearings, and more consistent tracking of key inflection points such as DIP financing, plan milestones, litigation, and asset sales across a wider restructuring landscape.

What distinguishes our approach is a clear mandate: cover meaningful capital structures in real time, starting the day a debtor files and continuing through emergence, liquidation, and any appeals. Since the initial launch of Bankruptcy coverage, the team has produced more than 1,500 stories covering more than 100 debtors, building an always-on view of how restructurings evolve, where value shifts, and what legal and documentation themes matter most to investors. Those themes are not theoretical. In the Hot Topics in Bankruptcy webinar, the discussion identified the same themes, focused on post-LME bankruptcies, (including Saks, STG Logistics, Pretium Packaging, and Cumulus Media) to how litigation and court rulings can set roadmaps for future disputes.

How We Cover a Bankruptcy Case: The Process, Start to Finish

Day One: The Launch Report

On the first day of any covered filing, our team publishes an introductory report that explains who the debtor is, how it got there, and what comes next. These day-one reports typically include business history and operations, the debt stack and key creditor groups, the path to bankruptcy, and the company’s initial restructuring or liquidation objectives, supported by charts that surface the case’s defining features at a glance.

A recent example is��The Lycra Company, in which our intro report quickly framed the company’s filing around a prearranged restructuring, the key creditor support behind the deal, and the broader business and market pressures that led to chapter 11. The report gave readers an immediate view into the company’s operating background, the major drivers of distress, and the proposed path forward, including how value was expected to be distributed across the capital structure. It also highlighted the role that weakening demand, competitive pressure, trade uncertainty, and legacy issues tied to prior ownership played in the filing. First-day context helps clients move quickly from headline news to a more informed view of what the case could mean for recoveries, negotiations, and market precedent.

That foundation is critical in a market where, as the webinar emphasized, documentation quality and deal terms can drive leverage in negotiations and determine which tools are available once a company hits chapter 11.

The Case Timeline: Filings, Hearings, and Turning Points

From there, our team tracks each case from filing through resolution, covering every significant development as it hits the docket and, when it matters most, from inside the courtroom in real time. That includes DIP financing proposals, asset sales and auction processes, chapter 11 plan negotiations and filings, litigation tied to key disputes, and procedural flashpoints that can shift leverage, value, or outcomes.

This real-time lens is especially important when a judge’s questions, rulings, or courtroom dynamics materially affect the direction of a restructuring. As discussed in the Hot Topics in Bankruptcy webinar, litigation and process issues have become a major focus for investors, whether in disputes over liability management transactions or procedural issues such as venue.

Integrated Court Dockets

Subscribers also have access to fully integrated court dockets directly on distressed company pages, including relevant adversary proceedings, with documents available to download as needed. Our email alerts for new filings on notable cases also help teams monitor fast-moving situations. This is especially useful when disputes spill into adversary proceedings or when LME-related conflicts continue to play out in court.

Bankruptcy Data Workbook

To complement our report and docket coverage, we have published the Bankruptcy Data workbook, accessible within the ���׶���Ƶ platform. The workbook is designed to give subscribers a structured, downloadable view of the bankruptcy universe we track. This��enables easier monitoring of cases, comparison across situations, and analysis of broader market trends.

The workbook will include several core data sets:

• Case-level details: Each company that has filed for bankruptcy since January 2025, including filing date, exit date, case number, court, and judge.
• Lenders & Advisors: Information on the legal counsel, financial advisors, and other parties that provided advisory services to a company during its bankruptcy case.
• Capital structure: All funded debt, including loans and bonds, that a company owed at the time it filed for bankruptcy.
• Rule 2019 disclosures: A subset of the capital structure showing which creditors held which debt positions.

Pairing narrative reporting and real-time hearing coverage with a consistently updated reference tool enables users to screen activity, track diligence, and monitor markets more effectively.

The End of the Case: The “Chapter 11 Bookend”

At the end of a case, we publish a Chapter 11 Bookend that provides a detailed wrap explaining what happened, why, and what the outcome means in context.

A recent example is��PrimaLend Capital Partners, in which our Bookend report showed how the company used chapter 11 to run a sale process, transfer assets to lender-backed buyers, and ultimately confirm a liquidation plan. The report pulled together the key milestones of the case, including the financing that supported the process, the progression of the sale, the structure of the confirmed plan, and the post-emergence mechanisms for distributing value to creditors. It also highlighted an important reality for distressed investors: even when a case formally ends, litigation and related claims can continue to shape the ultimate outcome. By tying together the procedural path, creditor recoveries, and unresolved disputes, our Bookend report gave clients a clear understanding of how the case concluded and what mattered most from an investment and precedent perspective.

As noted in the Hot Topics in Bankruptcy webinar, this type of end-of-case analysis is also where broader market themes often become clearest, including recurring plan issues, litigation strategies, and the practical implications for recoveries and negotiating leverage.

Navigating Distressed Lifecycles

In a market where documentation risk, LMEs, litigation, and even venue can reshape outcomes in a matter of days, bankruptcy is no longer something investors can afford to follow at a distance. Our Bankruptcy coverage is built for that reality, pairing day-one context with real-time docket and hearing coverage, structured data tools, and case-closing Bookend reports that capture what changed, who gained leverage, and why it matters for recoveries and future playbooks. From opening reports like The Lycra Company��to end-of-case analysis like��PrimaLend Capital Partners, and now with the addition of the Bankruptcy Data workbook, the goal is the same: turn court-driven complexity into clear, investable insight.

If you need to stay ahead of the next filing, the next ruling, or the next turning point, ���׶���Ƶ can help turn court-driven complexity into clear, investable insight.

Want access to Bankruptcy insights? Request a demo below to get started.

The leveraged loan market represents a $1.4 trillion opportunity, but the tools investors rely on are often fragmented across research terminals, covenant databases, data rooms, and spreadsheets. Building a complete view from individual sources is time-consuming and increases the risk that important details will be missed.

���׶���Ƶ helps solve that challenge by bringing together the insight, tools, and workflow support loan investors need in one place. From market intelligence and covenant expertise to portfolio analytics, document management, compliance support, and fundamental credit data, ���׶���Ƶ supports the full leveraged loan investment process. And with our new Loan Navigator, accessing those capabilities is easier, faster, and more connected than ever.

Coverage Built for the Realities of Loan Investing

Seeing the full picture in leveraged loans requires more than headline market updates. Investors need timely visibility into new issuance, secondary activity, and the broader trends shaping the market.

���׶���Ƶ helps investors stay close to market activity with:

• Primary loan news and data
• Secondary loan news and data
• A deals screener to track what is coming to market
• Context on broader market trends and activity
• AI-powered credit intelligence leveraging ���׶���Ƶ’ proprietary data

That visibility can make it easier to spot opportunities early and respond with greater confidence.

But market activity is only part of the equation. Understanding what is actually inside documents is just as critical. Through Covenant Review, investors can access trusted covenant analysis and trend research to assess deal protections, identify structural risks, and evaluate documentation more clearly. Our loan comparison tool supports side-by-side analysis of loans and tranches, helping teams review precedents, uncover loopholes, and model distressed scenarios, while loan documentation scoring offers a quick read on the relative strength of loan agreements.

From Credit Selection to Portfolio Perspective

CLO investors also need to look beyond individual deals. Portfolio construction depends on understanding how credits interact, where concentrations are forming, and how risks or opportunities may be building across holdings.

���׶���Ƶ supports that broader portfolio view with tools to:

• Compare CLO portfolios
• Analyze industry exposure
• Identify concentrations quickly
• Monitor portfolio risk and opportunity across holdings

Investors can also draw on comprehensive BSL and CLO data, supported by an interactive CLO database covering more than 2,700 new issues. Additionally, you can access even broader issuer coverage across public and private markets. Together, these capabilities help turn large volumes of portfolio and market information into more actionable insight.

At the same time, deeper issuer analysis remains essential. Public and private fundamental data, call transcripts, and broader loan market datasets help investors evaluate companies in greater detail, compare credits across sectors, and monitor changing fundamentals over time.

Supporting Execution, Compliance, and Ongoing Monitoring

Research and portfolio analysis are only part of the workflow. Loan investing also depends on strong operational controls, disciplined compliance processes, and secure handling of sensitive information.

���׶���Ƶ supports these needs with document management and compliance tools designed to help firms maintain secure, auditable workflows and reduce the risk of mishandling MNPI. Integrated workflow capabilities can also streamline compliance and regulatory reporting, while keeping documents organized and easy to review.

That support extends further when credits become stressed or distressed. Bankruptcy coverage includes real-time court dockets, news, and legal research tailored to the US leveraged finance market, helping investors stay informed as situations evolve.

For firms that want to integrate this intelligence more directly into internal systems, ���׶���Ƶ also offers data feed and API compatibility, providing more flexibility in how loan market data, research, and analytics are accessed and used.

A More Connected Way to Access It All

From market monitoring and documentation analysis to portfolio insight, compliance, and credit event tracking, ���׶���Ƶ offers the breadth of support across the leveraged loan workflow.

Loan Navigator is the latest solution delivering a unified platform that brings together all of these key capabilities into one integrated experience for loan-focused investors. It’s now faster and easier than ever to access the full depth of ���׶���Ƶ loan coverage in a more connected way.

The Bottom Line

The leveraged loan market is only becoming more complex. Investors need tools that help them move faster, see more clearly, and act with confidence. ���׶���Ƶ Loan Navigator is built to meet that need with the market intelligence, covenant expertise, portfolio insight, compliance support, and credit data required to support the full loan investment workflow.

Want to see these capabilities in action? Contact us to schedule a demo and learn how ���׶���Ƶ can support your leveraged loan investment process.

In today’s rapidly evolving landscape, AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) are redefining how professionals access information, making it faster and more efficient than ever. Yet, in financial markets where decisions must withstand the scrutiny of investment committees, audits, and regulators, speed alone��������’t enough. Reliable, sourced, and scenario-aware insights are essential.

Human Context is Irreplaceable

���������׶���Ƶ, we recognized��the transformative potential of AI�����Ի���integrated��our own tool��across our platform in September��2025. AI is a powerful enabler for scale, but the true value in fixed income analysis lies in understanding “what does this mean next?”��This��question demands human context, experience, and inference. While AI can quickly surface information and generate summaries, it is human��judgement��that brings nuance and deep scenario awareness, helping clients interpret implications and risks in complex market environments.��

Covenant Intelligence, Built on Legal Expertise��

Clients often leverage ���׶���Ƶ AI to clarify covenant details such as those in newly issued bonds. A generic LLM may return basic definitions and boilerplate explanations. By contrast, our AI goes beyond the surface because it has been trained and continuously refined by ���׶���Ƶ legal experts with 20+ years of market experience who continue to research and analyze across an increasing breadth of names.��

Instead of merely repeating standard covenant terms,��our��AI��can��flag��nuanced��exceptions in documentation,�����Ի���reference��specific legal precedents and market implications relevant to the issuer’s unique structure.��Additionally,��it��can��highlight areas where the covenant language diverges��from industry norms and��provide��context��how those differences may affect default risk and recovery scenarios.��This depth��������’t��achievable with an off-the-shelf LLM that lacks embedded market intelligence and expert legal input.��

Trusted Data + Human-in-the-Loop: The Gold Standard��

Auditability and traceability are paramount in regulated markets,��especially��in trading and credit analysis. Our��Covenant��Review and documentation analysis��tools��incorporate decades��of legal and market��expertise, codified into our AI models and reinforced through a��“human-in-the-loop” approach. This��ensures quality controls, rigorous��methodology, and traceability—��delivering decision-grade outputs that generic LLMs are not designed to provide.��

Ultimately, in��markets where nuance matters and black-swan events can redefine the landscape, the combination of advanced AI and human intelligence delivers decision-grade insight. Just as a pilot guides��an aircraft��through turbulence, our analysts provide the context and��expertise��needed to navigate uncertainty and complexity,��ensuring��insights are built for��the most demanding environments.��

AI is revolutionizing scale, but human judgement��remains��the cornerstone of credible, actionable financial analysis.�����׶���Ƶ��makes it possible��for your team to move faster without sacrificing rigor, governance, or confidence.����

Human-in-the-loop��isn’t��a buzzword;��it’s��a validation that experience, human reasoning, and inference cannot be offboarded or offshored. This commitment is precisely why�����׶���Ƶ��continues to invest in both best-in-class human talent and best-in-class AI loops, ensuring that every insight is not only powered by technology but also guided by deep��expertise. By combining these strengths,�����׶���Ƶ��delivers rigorous, scenario-aware analysis that meets the highest standards of trust and quality.

Maximize the value of human-in-the-loop research and discover how ���׶���Ƶ AI can empower your workflow today.