How do banks even have private credit desks? Isn’t private credit non bank lending?

They have pockets which raise third-party / external pools of capital to invest via these strategies (i.e., non bank balance sheet). Just like banks have other strategies such as private equity, growth, etc. (typically housed on the asset management side of the institution: GSAM, MSIM, JPAM, etc.).

The confusion may come from the different scope of the word “bank”. There is the narrow use which means the literal bank that makes loans by expanding its balance sheet, takes deposits etc., and then there is the broader sense that includes all the other businesses that belong to the financial services company dominated by its banking business. This typically includes an asset management arm. That AM arm does what independent AMs do as well: it raises capital from investors in funds and then invests that capital according to some strategy. This can include a private credit fund.

So on the one hand you have the “bank” JPMorgan & Chase that among others includes a bank, an asset management arm, and probably a bunch of other stuff as well; and then you have the actual bank, as mentioned.