Canyon Partners just made one of the more consequential hires in structured finance this year. The firm brought on Jay Kim, a veteran of Credit Suisse and former CEO of ATLAS SP Partners, to build and run a brand-new asset-backed financing platform with plans to originate north of $5B in loans every year.
The vehicle, called Canyon ABF Partners (CAP), launched on June 9, 2026 as a permanent capital structure. Its mission: provide financing to specialty lenders and regional banks, two corners of the financial system that have been increasingly underserved by traditional capital sources.
What Canyon is actually building
Canyon ABF Partners will originate asset-backed loans, meaning it will lend against pools of underlying assets like consumer loans, equipment leases, or receivables. Instead of lending money based on a borrower’s promise to pay, the loans are secured by actual, identifiable cash flows from real assets.
The $5B annual origination target is aggressive but not outlandish for someone with Kim’s background. At ATLAS SP Partners, he ran one of the more prominent structured finance platforms in the market. Before that, he spent considerable time at Credit Suisse in roles tied directly to this kind of lending infrastructure.
