Asset-Based Finance Executive Search

Asset-based finance is a narrow part of alternative credit. Not everyone does it, and the people who do tend to know each other. We’ve spent thirty years placing senior professionals in this market — originators, underwriters, structurers, traders, portfolio managers. It’s our founding specialty.

The market is big. U.S. public and private ABF together runs about $4.5 to $5 trillion (SIFMA). Globally, private ABF is around $6.1 trillion today and projected to reach $9.2 trillion by 2029 (KKR, 2025). Banks have pulled back from a lot of this lending under tougher capital rules, and demand keeps growing. The AI data center and power buildout alone is a multi-trillion-dollar capital need, much of it flowing through ABS and structured finance (Skadden, 2026). Hiring moves quickly, and the best candidates aren’t on any job board.

What Is Asset-Based Finance Executive Search?

ABF is different from corporate lending. The loans aren’t repaid by a company’s operations. They’re repaid by pools of underlying assets — mortgages, auto loans, aircraft leases, royalty streams, whatever the collateral happens to be. Those assets sit in a structured vehicle that’s insulated from the operating company, and they generate their own cash flows.

That changes who you hire. Senior ABF people have to understand the collateral, not just the credit. They think about pool performance, structure, and how the deal waterfalls work. A generalist recruiter can’t tell the difference between a senior consumer ABS underwriter and someone who structures whole-business deals. We can.

Collateral We Cover

• Consumer ABS — credit cards, autos (prime through subprime), unsecured consumer, student loans, point-of-sale
• Corporate ABS — trade receivables, corporate loan warehouses, whole-business deals, IP and pharma royalties
• Equipment and Transportation — aircraft, shipping, railcars, containers, fleet and equipment leasing
• Real Estate — residential and commercial mortgage collateral, single-family rental, data center financing
• Infrastructure — solar, wind, oil and gas reserves, fiber, cell towers, data center and power
• Esoteric — insurance premium finance, litigation receivables, structured settlements, capital call lines, NAV facilities

The economics vary a lot across these verticals. Deal flow, comp, career paths — they all move differently. We look at each search in that context.

Who Hires ABF Professionals?

• Alternative asset managers launching dedicated ABF strategies or raising new funds
• Insurance companies, especially life insurers building private ABF allocations
• Commercial and investment banks — structured finance, securitization, warehouse, capital markets
• Specialty lenders and non-bank originators scaling as banks retrench
• Alternative credit funds — hedge funds and credit-opportunities platforms across ABF debt, equity, and legacy positions
• Family offices building direct ABF and co-investment exposure
• PE-backed ABF platforms standing up lending operations around a specific collateral type

Roles We Fill

• Heads of ABF and Heads of Structured Credit — platform leaders
• Portfolio managers running ABF books
• Originators generating transactions across verticals
• Underwriters and credit analysts
• Structurers building waterfalls, negotiating documentation, working with rating agencies
• Traders covering ABS, MBS, and esoteric paper
• Capital markets and syndication
• Research and quantitative analysts

Seniority runs from senior individual contributors to C-suite and platform heads.

Why ABF Global Search

Founding expertise. Asset-based finance is what we started with. Every collateral type has come through our practice at some point.

Three decades of relationships. Our network of over 35,000 credit professionals was built one conversation at a time, not pulled from a database.

We know the work. Candidates get evaluated on the actual language of the seat — not a generic credit framework.

We move fast. ABF hiring windows are short. An open originator seat means missed deal flow. Our mandates usually close in weeks.

Frequently Asked Questions

What makes ABF recruiting different? It’s technical. The vocabulary, the structures, the seats are specific to the market. A generalist recruiter can’t tell a consumer ABS underwriter from a commercial receivables structurer — their networks aren’t built that way.

What collateral types are hiring most right now? As of early 2026, consumer ABS, equipment and transportation finance, and AI/data center infrastructure are the busiest. Skadden’s 2026 piece cites a JPMorgan estimate that AI data centers and power will need at least $5 trillion in capital, much of it flowing through ABS, CMBS, and structured equity.

Can you build an entire platform? Yes. Many of our engagements start with a platform head and extend through origination, underwriting, structuring, and capital markets.

How do you find candidates for niche ABF roles? Relationships, not databases. Thirty years of direct engagement with the people who actually do the work.

Looking for Top Alternative Credit Talent?

Whether you’re launching a new ABF platform, adding a senior originator, or building a full structured credit team, we can help.

Bill Ebinger | Founder, ABF Global Search | bill@abfglobalsearch.com | 917-719-6413

Citations

• SIFMA — U.S. ABS issuance and outstanding statistics — https://www.sifma.org/resources/research/us-abs-issuance-and-outstanding/
• KKR — Asset-Based Finance Primer Part 1, June 2025
• Moody’s — Global Structured Finance Outlook 2026 — https://www.moodys.com/web/en/us/insights/credit-risk/outlooks/global-structured-finance-2026.html
• Skadden — Structured Finance Is Playing a Key Role as the Capital Demands of Data Center and Power Build-Outs Balloon, 2026 Insights
• Apollo — Asset-Based Finance: The Next Evolution of Private Credit, October 2023