AFG has reported a strong FY26, and buried in the residential headlines is a number worth a broker's attention.
Australian Broker reported that AFG posted net profit after tax of $49 million, up 39% on the prior year, on the back of a broker network that now exceeds 4,300 brokers serving more than 600,000 customers across over 80 lenders.
The commercial number
The residential figures are large, but the line that matters here is asset and commercial finance settlements climbing 19% to $4.3 billion. That is a channel growing, not shrinking, in a year CEO David Bailey described as a softer lending backdrop.
For a business owner, that scale has a practical read-through. More brokers writing across more than 80 lenders means the panel a business is compared against keeps widening. It doesn't guarantee a better outcome, but it does mean more of the market is being looked at when a commercial or asset finance application goes out.
What's shifting underneath
Bailey flagged that residential lodgements have softened since June as borrowers weigh tax policy, rate expectations and cost-of-living pressure. The article notes this year's budget changes to negative gearing and the CGT discount are part of that recalculation.
None of that is a commercial finance signal directly, but it tells you the mood: borrowers are making "more considered decisions," in Bailey's words. Slower to move, more likely to compare.
The other detail worth logging is the manufacturing arm's net interest margin lifting to 125 basis points on improved warehouse funding conditions. Funding costs on the lender side don't map one-to-one to what a business pays, but easing warehouse conditions is the sort of upstream pressure release that eventually shows up in pricing appetite.
A record profit and a growing commercial book is a lender-side story. What it changes for a borrower is modest and indirect: a bigger comparison set, and a market where taking your time is now the norm rather than the exception.