New Zealand's non-bank lending sector is shedding its long-held stigma and scaling up, with executives and advisers now pointing to narrowing rate spreads, returning property investors and cheaper offshore institutional capital as the forces reshaping the market. NZ Adviser brought together seven industry figures at Onemata Restaurant in Viaduct Harbour, Auckland, to examine how the sector is changing and what it will take to close the gap on Australia and the United States. The conversation ranged from practical AI use in back-end operations to the cultural risk of non-banks losing the speed and agility that made them competitive in the first place. With non-banks holding roughly 1.5% to 2% of the New Zealand lending market compared with 12% to 15% in Australia, participants agreed that adviser education and personal relationships remain the primary engine of growth.
New Zealand borrowers are growing more comfortable with non-bank lenders largely because the pricing gap between bank and non-bank rates has narrowed, and advisers report that clients now raise non-bank options themselves before being prompted. Ryan Smuts of Kris Pedersen Mortgages notes that clients understand banks are heavily regulated and, when told that major banks often fund non-bank lenders, use that knowledge to bridge their own confidence gap. Daniel McGrath of Xceda connects the shift to a broader comfort with alternative financial services, from e-wallets to KiwiSaver fintechs. Despite the progress, one recent sector survey found 87% of participants believe more still needs to be done on reputation, which means education remains a significant priority for the sector.
Interest rate reductions through 2025 have prompted property investors to make strategic re-entries into the New Zealand market after a sustained period of subdued activity. Johny Kale of CFML says his firm has responded by making practical policy adjustments so advisers can deliver stronger solutions for returning investors. Campbell Smith of Pepper Money is also seeing tentative interest from first-home buyers, many of whom lack large deposits or family equity but carry sound income levels. This has led to increased requests for higher loan-to-value ratio support, which Pepper has worked with its funding partners to accommodate, positioning non-banks as a practical option for borrowers who fall outside standard bank criteria.
Cheaper offshore institutional capital is compressing the spread between bank and non-bank lending rates in New Zealand, making non-bank mortgages more competitive than at any previous point. Pernell Callaghan of Finbase explains that improved governance, risk frameworks and data integrity at non-bank lenders over the past two to three years have made them credible recipients of capital from large overseas insurance and private credit firms, and that back-end investment is precisely what has driven the rate compression. Kale of CFML adds that a potential RBNZ regulatory change, a securitisation carve-out modelled on Australia's existing arrangement, could push non-bank pricing to within 50 to 100 basis points of the banks, with any benefit passed directly to borrowers.
New Zealand non-banks currently hold approximately 1.5% to 2% of the lending market, compared with 12% to 15% in Australia and 55% in the United States. Pernell Callaghan of Finbase estimates Australia is roughly five years ahead of New Zealand and the US is around 15 years ahead. Johny Kale of CFML argues this gap is closeable, given non-banks' speed to market, and points to the Commerce Commission report as affirming that greater competition between credit providers benefits borrowers through lower margins. Participants at the roundtable viewed the gap as an opportunity rather than a structural barrier, particularly if RBNZ changes to securitisation rules proceed.
Practical AI adoption across New Zealand's non-bank lending sector is concentrated in back-end operations rather than customer-facing tools. Daniel McGrath of Xceda says loading adviser application data into internal AI tools has materially reduced processing times and enabled headcount savings in operations. Johny Kale of CFML has redirected staff from data input to adviser-facing roles using AI-assisted coding tools, drawing on his own background as a programmer. Pernell Callaghan of Finbase is applying AI within treasury policy processes to support decisions on how loans are allocated across different funding sources, an area he believes non-banks will advance further than major banks. Campbell Smith of Pepper Money says AI has been part of operations for some time, with customer-facing tools now in development.
Advisers are the primary distribution channel for non-bank lending in New Zealand, so most growth investment flows into education and personal contact rather than mass marketing. Daniel McGrath's Xceda team runs monthly webinars attracting 40 to 50 advisers and finds that deal examples resonate more effectively than product presentations. Johny Kale's CFML sends the whole team out for face-to-face meetings rather than relying solely on business development managers. Ryan Smuts of Kris Pedersen Mortgages notes non-bank settlements have at times reached 40% of his total book. Pernell Callaghan observes that most advisers discover specialist lenders only when they get stuck on a deal and a colleague points them in the right direction, which underlines why peer networks and ongoing adviser education are central to the sector's expansion.
Several roundtable participants warned that growth creates pressure to operate more like a bank, which they see as self-defeating for non-banks. Luke Jackson of Go Lend used the term 'bankificate' to describe the cultural drift to avoid, and argued that each non-bank serves a distinct niche, making it as strategically important to articulate what a lender does not do as what it does. Campbell Smith of Pepper Money was direct that becoming more like a bank is not the ambition. Smith also noted that when Pepper loses deals from its pipeline, the competitor is almost always a main bank, not another non-bank, which suggests the sector's real growth opportunity lies in serving borrowers the banks decline rather than competing head-to-head with them.