In this webinar hosted by the ABA, Joe Millward delves into private credit in Australia. Private credit is no longer a niche side‑show – it’s becoming a core part of how the real economy is funded. It’s now a ~$200bn market, with roughly half backed by real estate and the rest in mid‑market corporate and asset‑backed deals.
What’s interesting is the convergence: banks and private credit often look at the same borrowers with similar credit frameworks, but operate with very different funding models, incentives and governance. Banks bring cheap, stable capital and prudential oversight; private credit brings flexibility, speed and genuinely hands‑on workouts when things get bumpy.
For CIOs and asset allocators, this is why private credit is showing up as a defensive, income‑oriented building block – senior‑secured, floating‑rate, low volatility – at the same time as regulators are clearly signalling that “light‑touch” days are over. The real question now is not whether private credit is here to stay, but how far it will reshape who actually provides credit to Australian businesses over the next cycle.