There are more than 200 finance companies in Australia, but only about 70 are members of the industry group, the Australian Finance Conference (AFC). Among the members of the AFC are large international financial companies, such as ORIX Australia Corp (Japan) and GE Capital (US). In June 2004 the assets of finance companies and general financiers totalled A$76.2bn, down by 5% from a year earlier.
There are two specific types of finance companies in Australia: specialist and captive finance companies.
Specialist finance companies, the largest of which are owned by commercial banks, are major lenders to small- and medium-sized businesses with less collateral or more volatile cash flows. Finance company loans are usually secured over specific assets, such as property or machinery, but can take the form of a floating charge over all assets. Fleets of vehicles are the most popular leased assets.
