Sydney-based FRONT Financial has become a non-bank lender after selling its mortgage and finance broking operations. It now provides property-backed commercial loans, secured by first and second mortgages, to business owners that banks typically won’t fund, whether because of their circumstances, the complexity of the deal, or tight timeframes.
Founders Ryan Sweeney (pictured left), chief executive, and William Banham (pictured right), chief of sales, will now deal with brokers as a funder rather than a fellow intermediary.
FRONT is moving into a growing part of the market. In its October 2026 Financial Stability Review, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) said non-bank lenders are a growing source of credit for households and businesses, though the sector’s overall impact on the financial system remains limited by its small size. That growth has been building all year, as Australian Broker reported in its Sector Focus on a big year for non-bank lenders.
FRONT’s in-house credit team assesses each transaction individually instead of applying a set lending model. It looks at the security, available equity, the complexity of the deal, and the borrower’s exit strategy.
For brokers, the firm is promising direct access to the people who assess loans and set terms, from first enquiry to settlement. It says it will protect the relationship brokers have with their clients throughout the process.
That pitch is aimed at brokers, who write more than 80% of new residential home loans but an estimated 35–40% of commercial lending, according to Thinktank’s Joel Harrison, speaking in Australian Broker’s roundtable on commercial property lending.
Banham said the firm’s borrowers rarely suit off-the-shelf lending.
“Our clients are ambitious business owners, and their funding needs are rarely one-size-fits-all,” he said. “They shouldn’t have to be squeezed into a product.”
FRONT’s switch follows a strong year for the brokerage. It arranged $550.1 million in settled loans across more than 500 transactions in FY2025–26, an 81.4% increase on the year before. In 2026 it also won at the Broker Innovation Awards and the Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia (MFAA) Excellence Awards.
“We spent years on the other side of the table watching good deals stall over rigid policy,” Sweeney said.
“If there’s a viable path forward, we’ll find it and structure around it,” he added.
FRONT plans to expand its presence in Australia’s credit market, with further growth planned for 2027, as it aims to become a leading lender for complex, property-backed commercial finance.
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