Non-bank business lending statistics Australia: how much business credit is outside the banks

Smaller loans to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) had the highest non-bank share in December 2025, at 27.0%¹. The share was 6.8% for larger SME loans and 4.1% for loans to large businesses.

For these figures, small and medium enterprises are businesses with annual revenue of less than $75 million². Smaller loans to SMEs are those where the lender's total exposure to the business is less than $1.5 million. Larger loans to SMEs are lender exposures of $1.5 million or more, and large businesses have annual revenue of $75 million or more.

The shares by business size exclude loans to financial businesses and are not seasonally adjusted or adjusted for breaks¹.

The RBA also reports business loans outstanding across the three segments, for lenders with $2 billion or more of business credit². In August 2025, smaller loans to SMEs totalled $168.0 billion, larger loans to SMEs totalled $514.6 billion and loans to large businesses totalled $545.3 billion. Smaller loans to SMEs accounted for 13.7% of the $1,228.0 billion across the three segments.

Non-financial business credit outstanding in Australia was $1,440.6 billion in July 2026³. The RBA's break-adjusted growth rate was 10.6% over the 12 months to July 2026 and 0.9% for the month⁴.

Non-financial business credit was $1,303.2 billion in July 2025 and $858.7 billion in July 2019³.

The credit levels are not adjusted for breaks in reporting. The published growth rates are adjusted, and the RBA describes them as a better measure of change³.

Owner-occupier housing credit was $1,764.7 billion in July 2026, the largest of the four components of total credit excluding financial businesses³. Investor housing credit was $868.5 billion and other personal credit was $166.6 billion. Together with non-financial business credit, these brought total credit excluding financial businesses to $4,240.4 billion. Its break-adjusted growth rate was 8.4% over the 12 months to July 2026⁴.

Non-financial business credit recorded the fastest 12-month growth rate among the four components of total credit excluding financial businesses in July 2026, at 10.6%, compared with 10.1% for investor housing credit and 6.1% for owner-occupier housing credit⁴.

The RBA's business credit measure grew at a six-month annualised rate of 10.7% in December 2025, compared with an average of 3.9% since the global financial crisis (GFC), cited in the RBA's February 2026 Bulletin article¹. Business credit accounted for 33.5% of total credit in December 2025.

A non-bank lender is a lender that is restricted from offering deposits⁵. Non-bank lending is undertaken by registered financial corporations and by some managed investment funds, including hedge funds⁶.

Non-bank corporations that extend credit and have debt assets of more than $50 million must register with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) as registered financial corporations and report their financial position and lending activity⁶.

Registered financial corporations fall into two groups⁶. Securitisers originate loans and package them into asset-backed securities, while non-securitisers keep the loans on their balance sheets. Registered financial corporations lend mainly for residential housing and cars, but also lend to businesses and commercial property developers.

The RBA states that many non-bank lenders specialise in segments where banks are less active or inactive, including automotive finance, unsecured SME finance and early-stage construction finance¹. Non-bank lenders face fewer prudential regulatory constraints than banks because they do not take deposits.

Private credit is a form of non-bank lending typically facilitated by asset managers and funded by investors such as superannuation funds, insurance firms and family offices¹. It typically provides lending to larger businesses.