When one of the leading female leaders in the broking industry has something to say about the state of commercial and asset finance broking, it pays to listen.
Founder and principal of New South Wales-based brokerage Astute Ability Group, industry mentor, equine finance extraordinaire (yes, you heard that right) and all-round broking industry legend, Mhairi MacLeod (pictured) was her usual energetic self when she sat down with MPA.
Confidence is finally flowing back into the commercial and asset finance space, with business clients starting to re‑engage rather than sit on their hands.
There is an uplift in demand across working capital, asset finance and commercial property as sentiment improves. Business credit demand enjoyed a late-year rebound in an otherwise subdued 2025. Meanwhile, Australia’s premier asset and equipment finance aggregator COG Aggregation is enjoying a reversal of fortunes following a cyclical downturn.
Businesses are accepting the fact that the era of 1.99% financing is over and probably never coming back, so instead of waiting for ultra‑cheap money to return, clients are focusing on getting the right funding structure in place to get their ships in order.
Yet as more and more brokers pile into the commercial lending space to get a piece of the action, some clear winners and losers are emerging.
Need for speed
“There is a gap that's widening between brokers who just quote for cars and those who understand asset lending and the strategic lending propositions we need to give to our clients,” says MacLeod.
In the age of broker diversification, she believes there are some fundamental misunderstandings of how commercial and asset finance actually operates.
Pricing is, and always will be, important, but it is only one part of the story. “Point four (percentage points) off the rate is not what we’re looking for,” says MacLeod. “We’re looking for good structure.”
By “structure”, MacLeod means getting the fundamentals right: working capital, balloon payments, depreciation, GST treatment, risk-based pricing, ABN tenure and credit conduct.
These issues can be complex and arduous, but they are critical to securing the best deal for commercial and asset clients. Unfortunately, some brokers entering the space haven’t read the memo.
MacLeod says: “Everything with a serial number is financeable if you know how to position it – whether it’s yellow goods, trucks, trailers, cars, manufacturing equipment or technology equipment. The key factor is the risk and the appetite that the lenders are looking for, not just getting an invoice and trying to fit a rate.”
It all comes down to understanding what the client needs and working towards their goals.
“You’ve got to be able to explain these things confidently, so you don’t lose trust with the customer,” says MacLeod. Deal structuring is also industry specific – a gym owner and a restaurant owner have vastly different needs; the best brokers understand this and are able to adapt.
Speed is also of supreme importance.
“Dealerships, machinery, suppliers and builders move fast,” says MacLeod. Brokers who are securing approvals “within hours, not days” are the ones making waves in the industry.
In her words, “if a deal is still sitting on my desk the next day, there's a problem. We work at speed". Brokers like MacLeod, who are at the top of their game, can turn around a six-figure overdraft within a couple of hours – brokers who can’t match this speed will struggle to compete.
Yet speed cannot come at the expense of a quality submission. While a fast broker wins deals, they still need to be a fast broker who also actually understands the space.
“Brokers can't just submit a deal without the credit story,” says MacLeod. “‘Submit-and-wait’ brokers, who are generally those who don't understand this space, are being outperformed 100 to 1 by brokers who actually are prepared to move with speed, velocity, accuracy and understanding.”
Non-bank lenders step up
MacLeod has seen “a massive failure” rate of brokers dipping into commercial and asset finance, only to bow out because they didn’t grasp these core principles.
For her, one of the biggest safeguards is the support structure around the broker – starting with a decent aggregator.
“When you want to diversify, you probably should be, as a broker, looking at who you aggregate with,” says MacLeod.
A fit‑for‑purpose aggregator offers a comprehensive lender panel, understands true asset lending, and supports writing off‑panel where necessary, so brokers can deliver the best structure for clients.
Panel access to alternative and non‑bank lenders is becoming increasingly important as the market evolves.
These lenders have grown their share of the commercial and asset finance space because they have adapted to the industry’s challenges.
“They're shifting with the times in this space,” notes MacLeod. “They're the ones that are dominating the growth in this space because of how they're dealing with the velocity of things being done, and how we're having to compete.”