By Get SAFE – Support After Financial Exploitation
For the first time, Britain’s regulators have turned their gaze toward the murky world of shadow banking.
This week, the Bank of England confirmed that giants like Goldman Sachs, Oaktree, Carlyle, and ICG will take part in a system-wide “exploratory scenario” — a stress test designed to expose what happens when the unregulated private-credit machine hits turbulence.
It’s a watershed moment.
For more than a decade, regulators have watched from the sidelines as trillions in private loans, distressed debt, and securitised assets changed hands beyond the public eye. These opaque markets now underpin everything from commercial property to car finance — and increasingly, the lives of ordinary people.
🔦 The Shadow Banking System Comes to Light
Private credit has ballooned into a $2 trillion global industry, largely unregulated, yet intimately linked to everyday lending.
When traditional banks were forced to behave after 2008, the risk didn’t vanish — it migrated.
It moved into limited-partnership funds, offshore SPVs, and private-debt vehicles that operate without the scrutiny applied to banks or consumer lenders.
For victims of mortgage securitisation abuses, pension scams, and predatory receiverships, this is the systemic backdrop they’ve been fighting for years.
The Bank of England’s decision to test these shadow banks isn’t just a technical exercise. It’s an admission that the next financial crisis may already be hiding in plain sight.
Here’s a graph of global private credit AUM (estimated & projected) 2010–2026 based on Preqin-style figures:
- ~$0.3tn in 2010
- rising to ~$1.6tn by 2023
- with forecasts pointing to ~$2.8tn by 2028
I’ve interpolated between those points to get a smooth annual series and then extended it forward to 2026 (~$2.25tn) using the implied growth rate from the 2023–2028 projection.
Key for you when you reuse it:
- Left of the dashed line (≤2023): back-cast / fitted to historical Preqin estimates.
- Right of the dashed line (2024–2026): projection inferred from Preqin/BlackRock forecasts.
⚖️ From Stress Tests to Street-Level Consequences
Behind every spreadsheet is a household, a pensioner, or a small business.
When private credit funds buy distressed assets, their profits depend on enforcement — not empathy.
A stress test may show whether these institutions can survive a downturn, but it won’t reveal how their actions ripple through communities:
- Rapid foreclosures on struggling borrowers
- Asset stripping under the guise of “restructuring”
- Insolvency practitioners working hand-in-glove with creditors
These are precisely the patterns documented by Get SAFE citizen investigators. The regulator’s test measures market stability, but who tests the ethics?
🧩 Why This Matters for Citizen Investigators
This development strengthens every active case within Get SAFE’s ecosystem.
When victims highlight opaque ownership, off-balance-sheet lending, or offshore transfers, they are describing the same risk categories that the Bank of England now officially calls “systemic”.
Each citizen investigator’s file contributes to a broader truth:
Financial harm is not random — it is structured.
By connecting micro-level injustice to macro-level policy, Get SAFE provides what regulators lack: a human stress test.
🌍 A Turning Point for Accountability
The International Monetary Fund warned last year that private credit could be the next global fault line.
Now, with UK regulators finally probing the sector, civil society must ensure this isn’t another white-wash.
Transparency cannot stop at institutional resilience — it must extend to victim redress, ethical recovery, and structural reform.
Get SAFE calls on policymakers to:
- Mandate full disclosure of loan ownership and beneficial control
- Apply victim-rights standards to distressed-asset recoveries
- Fund independent citizen-led oversight alongside prudential testing
Because true stability isn’t measured in capital buffers — it’s measured in trust.
✊ Join the Movement
If you’ve been affected by a loan sale, securitisation, or private-debt recovery process you don’t understand, you’re not alone.
Get SAFE is building the UK’s first Citizen Investigator Fellowship — training victims and advocates to trace financial harm, build evidence, and demand accountability.
👉 Visit Get SAFE to learn how to take part.
Together, we can ensure that when the shadow banks are stress-tested, the public is not the collateral damage.
About Get SAFE
Get SAFE (Support After Financial Exploitation) is a citizen-led initiative that empowers victims of financial harm to investigate, document, and pursue redress.
Through AI-enabled training, structured playbooks, and collaborative fellowship, Get SAFE transforms victims into advocates — ensuring that truth and justice are not luxuries, but rights.
In One Sentence
Goliathon turns victims of financial exploitation into confident, capable citizen investigators who can build professional-grade cases using structured training, emotional support, and independent AI.
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Purchase today for £2.99 and get your secure link to:
- the training video, and
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Link to Goliathon Taster £2.99.
If the session resonates, you can upgrade to the full Goliathon Programme for £29 and continue your journey toward clarity, justice, and recovery.
Every year, thousands across the UK lose their savings, pensions, and peace of mind to corporate financial exploitation — and are left to face the aftermath alone.
Get SAFE (Support After Financial Exploitation) exists to change that.
We’re creating a national lifeline for victims — offering free emotional recovery, life-planning, and justice support through our Fellowship, Witnessing Service, and Citizen Investigator training.
We’re now raising £20,000 to:
Register Get SAFE as a Charity (CIO)
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Fund our first year of free support and recovery programmes
Every £50 donation provides a bursary for one survivor — giving access to the tools, training, and community needed to rebuild life and pursue justice with confidence.
Your contribution doesn’t just fund a project — it fuels a movement.
Support the Crowdfunder today and help us rebuild lives and restore justice.
Join us at: http://www.aolp.info/getsafe
steve.conley@aolp.co.uk | +44 (0)7850 102070
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