By Isla Binnie

NEW YORK, May 14 (Reuters) - Investors pulled more money out of a common type of private credit fund aimed at wealthy individuals than they put in during the first three months of the year, marking the first time quarterly redemptions have outpaced inflows, specialist investment bank RA Stanger said on Thursday.

Questions about lending standards and loan valuations outside the traditional banking system have weighed on private debt funds, combined with fears that artificial intelligence will disrupt the software businesses that many lent to during years of low interest rates.

Investors withdrew around $6.9 billion in the first quarter from non-traded business development companies, which lend to mainly small and mid-sized companies. That surpassed the $4.9 billion of new capital raised, RA Stanger said.

"Pressure that began building late in 2025 became more apparent in (the first quarter of) 2026," the bank said in a statement.

Compared with the same period of the previous year, inflows fell 59% and redemptions rose 429%, the data showed.

Stanger tracks 23 publicly registered BDCs. It does not count the listed versions that trade on stock exchanges.

All of these funds have allowed investors to withdraw a portion of their capital, and two exceeded their usual limit on those redemptions, Stanger Chairman and Chief Executive Kevin Gannon said.

One of the biggest non-traded BDCs, Blue Owl Credit Income Corp. (OCIC), reported a 95% year-on-year drop in new investments on May 1.