# Nuveen Credit Strategies Income Fund Nuveen Credit Strategies Income Fund is an Asset Manager based in Chicago, United States. ## Overview - **Organization type:** Asset Manager - **Headquarters:** Chicago, United States - **Region:** North America - **Address:** Chicago, IL, United States - **Founded:** 2003 - **Assets under management:** Undisclosed - **Website:** nuveen.com ## Regulatory record - **Reports private funds:** No ## About The Nuveen Credit Strategies Income Fund launched in 2003 as a listed closed-end fund under the Nuveen umbrella, with Scott Caraher and Aashh Parekh steering the credit selection. It was originally structured to provide individual investors access to institutional leveraged-loan markets, a segment typically walled off behind high minimums. Nuveen, a TIAA subsidiary with over $1 trillion in assets under management as of 2023, operates the fund as part of a larger complex of municipal and taxable closed-end strategies. Strategy pivots on floating-rate senior loans, which represent the bulk of the portfolio, supplemented by second-lien term loans and high-yield bonds when spreads warrant. The fund uses modest leverage — historically around 25–30% of managed assets — to amplify distributable income, a feature common among listed credit CEFs but one that magnifies downside when loan prices fall. As of mid-2024, the portfolio emphasized business services, healthcare, and technology credits, with top-sector allocations avoiding commodity-linked industrials. The vehicle pays monthly, targeting a level distribution rate that the managers reset periodically to reflect net investment income, not a return-of-capital shell game. Team size is not publicly enumerated, but the fund leans on Nuveen’s broader leveraged-finance platform, which includes dozens of analysts and traders across Chicago and New York. In September 2023, the fund maintained its monthly distribution at $0.1035 per share, a rate held steady since early 2023 as short-term rates plateaued, per the firm's official communications. Unlike Nuveen's open-end mutual funds, this closed-end structure gives Caraher and Parekh a stable capital base — no redemptions to meet during a credit selloff, a structural advantage that lets them buy into dislocated loans when mutual funds and ETFs face outflows. That stable-capital architecture is the core differentiator. Closed-end funds can hold illiquid second-lien and private-credit positions without facing daily shareholder redemption gates, a feature shared by the handful of listed credit CEFs but rare in the broader $1.5 trillion leveraged-loan market. When loan prices sank in March 2020, the fund maintained distributions while many open-end peers suspended redemptions or gated withdrawals, revealing the structural resilience of the CEF wrapper — a governor on forced selling that aligns the vehicle more with private-credit drawdown funds than with daily-liquid mutual funds. ## Sectors - Private Credit - Secondaries & Special Situations ## People - Scott Caraher — Portfolio Manager - Aashh Parekh — Portfolio Manager ## Questions ### Who runs investment decisions at Nuveen Credit Strategies Income Fund? Scott Caraher and Aashh Parekh serve as the named portfolio managers, with day-to-day credit selection executed by them and supported by Nuveen's broader leveraged-finance team. Caraher has been associated with the fund since at least 2014, per public regulatory filings. The fund does not operate with a separate independent investment committee — decisions follow Nuveen's internal credit-approval process. ### How is this fund different from Nuveen's open-end floating-rate mutual funds? The key structural difference is the closed-end wrapper. Unlike open-end funds, which must buy or sell assets to meet daily redemptions, this fund has a fixed share count. That allows the managers to hold less-liquid second-lien loans and to avoid forced selling during credit dislocations — a feature that preserved its distribution through the March 2020 loan-market selloff, when many open-end floating-rate funds faced redemption pressure. ### What credit instruments does the fund actually hold? The portfolio is anchored in senior secured floating-rate loans, which historically make up 70–85% of assets. The remainder is allocated to second-lien loans and high-yield corporate bonds when spreads offer value. The fund does not originate loans directly — it purchases them in the secondary institutional market, per the managers' public commentary. ### Which sectors does the fund explicitly avoid? The managers have historically underweighted commodity-sensitive sectors — energy, metals and mining, and pure-play oilfield services — to limit exposure to cyclical price swings that can trigger covenant breaches in leveraged-loan issuers. Sector allocations are detailed in the fund's quarterly commentary filings with the SEC. ### How does the fund's discount-to-NAV affect an allocator's decision? Closed-end funds trade at prices that diverge from their net asset value. This fund's shares have historically traded at a discount, which can offer a yield-on-cost higher than the stated distribution rate for buyers who enter when the discount is wide. However, that discount can also widen further during market stress, creating mark-to-market losses even if the underlying loan portfolio performs. ## Related profiles - [BlackRock MuniYield Quality Fund III](https://altss.com/profile/blackrock-muniyield-quality-fund-iii-inc) - [Royce Micro-Cap Trust](https://altss.com/profile/royce-micro-cap-trust-inc) --- Last updated: 2026-06-03T20:00:00.000Z Canonical page: https://altss.com/profile/nuveen-credit-strategies-income-fund Maintained by Altss — https://altss.com — methodology: https://altss.com/methodology