As Private Markets Scale, Expectations Shift

Private markets have long played a central role in portfolio construction, and their share of the investment landscape continues to grow. With scale comes attention, and this part of the market is now facing the kind of scrutiny that usually follows maturity.

ASIC made that shift explicit in its November 2025 paper, Advancing Australia’s Evolving Capital Markets, which highlights the need for greater visibility and surveillance as the sector expands.

Importantly, ASIC is signalling that stronger disclosure does not need to come at the expense of growth. The intent is to support capital formation while lifting confidence in how private market funds are governed, valued and reported.

That shift is also visible in market sentiment. A CFA Institute survey of investment professionals found that transparency concerns in private markets often centre on valuation reporting, performance measurement and fees. These are not new topics, but they become harder to assess as structures multiply and portfolios become more complex.

Transparency is becoming practical

In public markets, visibility is built into the system. In private markets, it has to be created through operating design.

This matters most in areas where judgement plays a role. Valuations are periodic, liquidity is shaped by structure, and information tends to arrive in reporting cycles rather than continuously. These features make it more important to clearly explain decisions.

When investors or trustees ask questions, they are rarely asking for more volume. They want to understand what changed, what drove it, and whether the approach is being applied consistently over time.

Secondaries are pushing expectations forward

The growth of private market secondaries is one of the clearest signs that expectations around information quality are accelerating.

CAIS Group reported that private market secondaries reached approximately US$103 billion in transaction volume in the first half of 2025, representing growth of around 50 per cent year-on-year.

Secondaries activity increases the demand for clear, comparable information. When fund exposures are traded, investors need confidence in the underlying reporting. They need to understand what sits behind valuation marks, how performance has been measured, and how portfolios compare across managers and vintages.

In this environment, transparency becomes directly linked to how capital moves.

This shift in market behaviour aligns with ASIC’s current direction, including its focus on stronger private market data and reporting. That agenda points to higher expectations around disclosure, valuation governance and liquidity risk.

Valuation is where transparency is tested

Few areas test transparency in private markets more than valuation, because it shapes performance reporting and investor confidence, and can influence liquidity decisions.

As a result, the bar is rising on how these decisions are governed and documented over time.

In jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom and the United States, private market valuation practices have already become a focal point as the sector has deepened.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority’s recent multi-firm review highlights variation in approaches and sets clearer expectations around documentation and consistency.

As markets mature, the quality of decision trails becomes a clear test of whether operating models are keeping pace with rising expectations.

The opportunity ahead

Some of the flagged reforms will take time to land. Even so, the shift toward stronger transparency in private markets already has practical implications. Operating models that rely heavily on bespoke reporting, manual intervention or informal knowledge are likely to face increasing pressure as expectations rise.

This creates an opportunity for those who respond early.

Strengthening infrastructure now allows flexibility to be preserved, while ensuring decisions can still be explained clearly when they are reviewed later.

Putting it into practice

Wicklow works at the point where transparency becomes operational. We support fund operators with the systems and processes that sit behind investor onboarding, registry, AML/CTF and compliance monitoring, so decisions are easier to evidence and explain.

In practice, this often means tightening parts of the operating model that tend to create friction later. When a valuation moves, a liquidity question is raised, or a trustee asks for supporting detail, the information should be easy to locate, consistent, and backed by a clear decision trail.

These design choices are small, but they matter when scrutiny increases.

What the next phase will reward

Private markets will continue to grow. ASIC’s roadmap reflects that reality and signals higher transparency expectations.

Market behaviour is already reinforcing the same direction.

The strongest operators will be those whose operating model makes decisions clear, consistent and well supported.