One sort of feels that, to navigate the finance landscape in 2026, one needs to have the dexterity of Mario Andretti.

Certainly, there is the need for speed. Private lenders have been tearing up the fast lane for years. Likewise, banks — after a very long time in first gear — decided last year that they also wanted to feel the rush. 

If you were a borrower, you had an abundance of choice. The economy seemed to be humming. Liberation Day tariffs didn’t bite as hard as some feared. Job growth seemed more or less steady. There was demand for housing. Retail seemed to have turned around. The words “data centers” and “industrial outdoor storage” lit a fire in many eyes.

But then…

One after another, obstacles started appearing on the road. The chairman of the Federal Reserve was put under investigation by the Department of Justice for seemingly political reasons. Dreams of a big interest rate cut were dashed. The Persian Gulf exploded, and the inflation warning light on everyone’s dashboard went berserk. Recession looked much more plausible than it did six months ago.

Yet the lenders on this year’s Power Finance have steered their way through crises before. And they can smell opportunity like it’s high octane.

Just look at what they did last year: There was the $10 billion worth of business that Starwood’s Jeff DiModica, Lorcain Egan and Dennis Schuh completed, including for a $500 million data center in Utah and a $500 million industrial portfolio in New York.

There’s the $23 billion that Blackstone originated on deals spanning the planet, including the United Kingdom’s very first CMBS deal.

Or there’s the $87 billion J.P. Morgan Chase injected into the debt market last year — we told you banks were back. (Chase was the lender Blackstone turned to when they wanted to finance the $3.98 billion purchase of Safe Harbor Marinas. They’re the lender’s lender.)

All the while, the wheeling and dealing has been facilitated by a ground crew of brokers and special servicers who not only beat previous records last year, but who have been quietly gearing up for the properties hitting walls of pending maturity.

But, to a certain extent, we don’t want to tease too much. Let our rankings and write-ups tell the story. These are the drivers of real estate finance — and they are revving up for more.

This package was written by Andrew Coen, Cathy Cunningham, Larry Getlen, Brian Pascus, Zoe Rosenberg, Amanda Schiavo and Patrick Sisson. It was edited by Cunningham, Tom Acitelli and Max Gross. Skip Card copy-edited it. Jim Sewastynowicz edited the photos, and Jeff Cuyubamba designed it.