The Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia (MFAA) and the Commercial and Asset Finance Brokers Association of Australia (CAFBA) have teamed up to help brokers better support small businesses as business lending accelerates and cost pressures intensify.
The two industry bodies have launched a joint member resource — dubbed Supporting Your Small Business Clients — which offers brokers practical steps for working with borrowers from small- and medium-sized (SME) firms.
"This resource is about equipping brokers with practical tools to support better conversations, earlier action and ultimately better outcomes for their clients," said MFAA's Chief Executive Officer Anja Pannek. "Small business clients often manage interconnected financial pressures across their business and household. In a more complex environment, access to the right advice at the right time can make a meaningful difference."
The Small Business guide was launched amid a backdrop of higher rates, inflation-driven cost pressures and an uncertain economic outlook that continues to impact operations and consumer demand.
But even before conflict in the Middle East drove global oil prices higher — with Australian fuel prices surging more than 32% in March — SMEs were already grappling with rising operating costs, supply chain disruption and mounting pressure on cash flow. Businesses are also preparing for the upcoming Payday Super reforms, which will require superannuation payments to be made with every pay cycle.
At the same time, tightening risk appetite among traditional lenders has widened the funding gap, even as demand for small business lending continues to gain traction across Australia, with increased numbers of small businesses seeking capital to expand, whether that be through hiring new staff, upgrading equipment, moving offices or expanding marketing schemes. Together, these changes are creating an increasingly complex lending landscape for both business owners and brokers to navigate.
"The growth in the industry isn't necessarily a short-term spike post-COVID anymore," Rebecca Del Rio, deputy chief executive officer for APAC and global chief revenue officer for non-bank lender Bizcap, told Australian Broker. "It's a real shift in how SMEs are accessing capital and a reflection of the banks.
"There's something that has fundamentally changed in the lending landscape," she continued. "Inflation has definitely pushed up costs; interest rates have increased for repayments. And customers are often taking longer to pay. It's really this mismatch that creates pressure."
The executive added that the broker market — with brokers increasingly writing the majority of new residential home loans in Australia, as much as 76.7% in the December 2025 quarter, according to MFAA — has "really matured."
"Brokers are more sophisticated than ever," Del Rio said. "They're providing better context, structuring deals properly and increasingly orchestrating blended solutions that really combine traditional bank lending and also non-bank lending solutions. This strengthens the broker's role in the ecosystem."
Currently, more than 97% of Australian businesses are classified as small businesses, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), underscoring the sector’s exposure to current economic headwinds, and the growing need for support for both SMEs and the brokers who serve them.
CAFBA's Chair of Advocacy David Gandolfo said: "By engaging early, brokers can help clients explore options such as restructuring, refinancing or adjusting funding strategies before those pressures become more acute and while there is still a broader range of options to address them.”
The guide outlines practical questions brokers can ask to better support clients, along with strategies for managing risk, protecting borrowers and accessing additional tools and resources online.
It also highlights key trigger points brokers should watch for, including rate rises, missed repayments, ATO and regulatory changes, complex business structures and cash flow challenges.
