Carlyle Group has agreed to purchase $7.7 billion worth of unsecured consumer loans from Truist, acquiring substantially all of the assets tied to LightStream, the bank’s unsecured lending platform, as Truist continues pulling back from parts of its consumer banking business.
The agreement, signed October 14, covers a seasoned portfolio made up primarily of fixed-rate, fully amortizing loans issued to super-prime and prime borrowers. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026.
The LightStream sale marks the bank’s second consumer loan divestiture within a month, part of a broader strategic shift toward prioritizing deposits over expanding its direct consumer lending footprint.
The purchase reflects Carlyle's expanding role as a capital partner to banks looking to offload loan assets from their balance sheets, part of a broader trend of private credit and alternative asset managers stepping in to absorb consumer and commercial loan portfolios that banks are increasingly reluctant to hold directly amid tighter capital requirements.
The deal adds to a growing wave of bank-to-private-credit asset transfers playing out across the financial sector, as firms like Carlyle continue building out asset-backed credit strategies that give them direct exposure to consumer lending without the regulatory overhead that comes with operating as a depository institution.
