While some troubled private equity investments have had to be restructured, the buyout industry emerged relatively unscathed from the finance crisis, and an expected second wave of restructurings has yet to arrive.

Debt restructuring activity rose in 2008 and 2009 but declined in late 2010 and in early 2011. According to rating agency Moody's, the global corporate speculative default rate peaked at about 15% in October 2009 and fell to 2.6% at the end of April.