At a glance
- Senior-secured infrastructure debt recovered an average of 67% in default, against 56% for the senior-secured corporate comparator it uses, the paper says, citing Moody's Ratings data from 1983 to 2024.
- A CLO structure can offer insurers using internal models a materially more capital-efficient route into high-yield infrastructure than Solvency II's standard formula, the paper says.
- Global infrastructure debt deal activity rose from $950 billion in 2020 to more than $1.5 trillion in 2025, with European volumes up over 70% across the period, according to Infralogic data cited by the paper.
BB-rated infrastructure debt defaulted at a cumulative 2.5% over three years, against 4.2% for BB-rated corporate debt, according to a Nuveen paper on high-yield infrastructure debt for insurers published by Insurance Asset Risk.
Senior-secured infrastructure debt recovered an average of 67% in default, against 56% for the senior-secured corporate comparator it uses, the paper says, citing Moody's Ratings data from 1983 to 2024. Private infrastructure debt indices showed roughly half the volatility of corporate benchmarks over the past decade and posted positive returns through the 2015 and 2018 credit selloffs.
A CLO structure can offer insurers using internal models a materially more capital-efficient route into high-yield infrastructure than Solvency II's standard formula, the paper says. Nuveen expects that gap to narrow after anticipated 2027 securitisation reforms.
Global infrastructure debt deal activity rose from $950 billion in 2020 to more than $1.5 trillion in 2025, with European volumes up over 70% across the period, according to Infralogic data cited by the paper. Infrastructure debt is already an established allocation for many European and U.K. insurance portfolios, though most of that capital sits in senior investment-grade exposure, the band the paper urges insurers to look past.
The paper presents high-yield infrastructure debt as a complementary alternative to direct lending, which it says faces AI-related disruption risk.
BB infrastructure defaulted half as often and recovered more
Three-year cumulative default rate and average recovery in default, %
- 3-yr default rate
- Recovery rate
Select a row for its counts and shares.
BB infrastructure
- 3-yr default rate2.5%37.3% of all 3-yr default rate
- Recovery rate67%54.5% of all recovery rate
BB corporate
- 3-yr default rate4.2%62.7% of all 3-yr default rate
- Recovery rate56%45.5% of all recovery rate
Show as table
| Group | 3-yr default rate | 3-yr default rate share | Recovery rate | Recovery rate share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BB infrastructure | 2.5% | 37.3% | 67% | 54.5% |
| BB corporate | 4.2% | 62.7% | 56% | 45.5% |
Reported by the Insurer portfolios desk from Insurance Asset Risk (partnered content, Nuveen research). Published . Corrections