Banjo Loans enhances asset finance offering to support SME growth

Australian small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) now have more opportunities to expand, thanks to Banjo Loans’ recent enhancements to its asset finance offering.

The non-bank SME lender has responded to market feedback from both finance brokers and clients, introducing key changes that increase loan sizes and streamline the application process.

The changes include:

• Increasing the loan size for Banjo’s Asset Finance Express, a bank statement analysis offering, from $250,000 to $500,000.
• Increasing the loan size for non-property-backed clients, who are not required to provide a deposit, from $150,000 to $250,000.

Banjo Loans’ chief commercial officer, Brendan Widdowson, expressed excitement about the new offering, which aims to meet the growing needs of SMEs.

“We’ve been listening to finance brokers and our clients, and we know they’ve been asking for these changes to support the funding of larger assets ($250,000–$500,000), such as prime movers and yellow goods, with a streamlined bank statement analysis solution,” Widdowson said.

“Asset finance is in demand year-round, and whatever big-ticket items SMEs might be considering, we’re pleased that these enhancements should make it possible for more of them to expand and thrive.”

Banjo Loans CEO, Guy Callaghan, highlighted the importance of extending their offerings to better support both current clients and potential new ones.

“For Banjo, it’s important for us to be able to extend our offering. It allows us to better support our current clients, and it also creates additional opportunities for us to bring our proven approach to SME lending to a wider market,” Callaghan said.

Banjo Loans provides tailored asset finance solutions for SMEs, enabling them to replace ageing equipment, consolidate existing debts, and release equity from existing assets.

Scenarios may include purchasing new or used assets, mid-term refinancing, balloon refinancing, or using existing assets to raise capital.

Accreditation program

This comes as Banjo Loans announced that it is “in the corner” of SMEs looking for franchise funding opportunities of $2 million.

According to the International Trade Organisation, Australia has more franchising outlets per capital than any other country in the world, second only to New Zealand, with around 90 per cent of franchises being developed in Australia.

In addition, data from the independent research and advisory firm FRANdata said there are currently approximately 1,221 franchise profiles in the country.

In response to these findings, Banjo Loans – while leveraging the established intelligence of FRANdata – has launched an accreditation program in order to assess which franchise groups it has the capacity to support.

This program takes into consideration such factors, including the number of franchises a group may have and the length of time it has been operating in Australia.

[RELATED: SMEs looking to franchise have Banjo ‘in their corner’]

Adrian Suljanovic is a journalist at Broker Daily with more than two years experience reporting on all facets of the third party distribution channel.

Adrian has written for a range of business and finance titles including IFA, Investor Daily and Lawyer’s Weekly before joining the mortgages team in 2022.

He graduated from the University of Wollongong in 2021 gaining a Bachelor of Communication & Media with a major in Digital & Social Media.

E-mail Adrian at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.