Skip to content

For principals

The 10 best mortgage broking recruiters in Australia in 2026

Ten firms recruit mortgage brokers, credit analysts and broker support staff in Australia with enough focus to be worth a call, and most principals brief whoever's ad they saw last. All ten are ranked here on criteria anyone can check, and FinTalent, the firm that publishes this page, ranks first. For a bank or a lender hiring at volume the order changes, and this page says exactly where.

The best mortgage broking recruiter in Australia for a principal-led brokerage is FinTalent, the only firm on this list whose entire business is mortgage and finance broking, ahead of Platinum People Group and Fuse Recruitment. For permanent and temp support hiring across several offices, Fuse has the widest footprint of the broking desks. For lender-side, bank and BDM roles, Profusion, Hays and Randstad carry the biggest benches.

The broking specialists and boutiques

Five firms where broking is the business, or a named and staffed desk. These are the ones to call when the hire changes a brokerage.

1. FinTalent

Focus:
Mortgage and finance broking only
Model:
Retained executive search
Guarantee:
120 days
Based:
Melbourne, placed roles in every state
Average fill:
27 days
Published placements:
54 across six role types
  • Broking focus 10/10
  • Principal fit 10/10
  • Reach 7/10
  • Evidence 9/10

Total36/40

FinTalent recruits only for mortgage and finance broking businesses: brokers, credit analysts, client service managers and heads of lending. It runs no accounting desk, banking desk or temp payroll. That focus is why it sits first on a list ranked for principal-led brokerages, where most of the work in a hire is working out what the seat actually needs, and whether the person will still be writing in your business in two years.

The evidence is public, with names on it. Marquee Group, a Melbourne residential and commercial brokerage, took four placements across four different briefs in twelve months and reports all four are still there. Strategic Portfolio Partners had a seat another agency held for five weeks and lost at offer stage; FinTalent filled it 42 days after terms were signed. The published tally so far is 20 mortgage brokers, 14 credit analysts, 8 commercial finance brokers, 8 senior client service managers, 2 heads of lending and 2 credit managers.

It runs retained executive search, with a fee worked off base plus super and nothing else, a 120-day guarantee and an average of 27 days to fill.

Scale is the limit. FinTalent is one recruiter, Joe Shephard, who runs every search himself, so it takes on a handful of briefs at a time and isn't the right call if you need thirty support hires across five branches this year. A bigger desk will push more volume through.

Joe Shephard's verdict: Part of picking a recruiter is whether they'll tell you the brief is wrong. 28Watt's own job ads had already proved the person their brief described wasn't answering. Sending more CVs at that brief would have been easy money and a waste of everyone's time, so I rebuilt the seat before it went back out. Thirteen days later there was a signed contract.

2. Platinum People Group

Focus:
Mortgage broking and third-party banking
Offices:
South Yarra (Melbourne) and Sydney
Founded:
2017
Roles:
Brokers, parabrokers, credit analysts, settlements, lender and aggregator BDMs
Clients:
Brokerages, aggregators and lenders
  • Broking focus 10/10
  • Principal fit 7/10
  • Reach 6/10
  • Evidence 5/10

Total28/40

The other genuine broking specialist in the country. Platinum People Group describes itself as a specialised mortgage brokerage and third-party banking recruitment firm, and its live roles read that way: brokers, parabrokers, credit analysts, loan packagers and settlements staff across Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. Founder Roland Youakim has worked in the sector since 2010, according to the firm's site, and it says it has recruited for more than 250 brokerages. That figure is its own.

Because it also works the lender and aggregator side, it suits a brief that crosses over, such as a BDM who'll call on brokers or a credit role in a third-party lender. The evidence score reflects a website that hasn't been refreshed in a while: its testimonials page runs from 2018 to 2020, and its employers page names clients such as Resolve Finance and Better Choice Home Loans. Ask for something more recent before you brief.

3. Fuse Recruitment

Focus:
Mortgage broking desk inside a multi-sector firm
Offices:
Hawthorn (Melbourne), Parramatta, Upper Mount Gravatt (Brisbane)
Founded:
2010
Model:
Permanent and temp, replacement guarantee
SEEK rating:
4.8 from 1,946 reviews, firm-wide (8 Oct 2026)
  • Broking focus 5/10
  • Principal fit 6/10
  • Reach 8/10
  • Evidence 6/10

Total25/40

The biggest firm here with a published mortgage broking desk, and the one that came up first on most of the broking recruitment searches we ran in October 2026. Fuse covers everything from insurance to infrastructure, and broking sits under its financial services practice, led from Melbourne by Lachie Young. Its broking page lists brokers, senior credit analysts and broking assistants, shows anonymised candidates on the market, and says its consultants have first-hand experience in the sector.

What it brings is footprint and flexibility: three offices across three states, temp as well as permanent, and a replacement guarantee on permanent hires, though it doesn't publish the period. The trade-off is focus. Broking is one desk among many, and nothing on the site shows named broking clients or results, which is what holds the evidence score back.

Joe Shephard's verdict: Temp cover is the one thing a retained boutique can't give you. If a processor walks out on a Friday and you've got settlements on Tuesday, get a temp in the seat first and hire the permanent person properly afterwards. Rushing a permanent hire to plug a gap is how you end up doing the same hire twice.

4. Integrate Recruitment

Focus:
Mortgage broking is one of four core sectors
Base:
Melbourne, national network
Founded:
2018
Model:
Permanent and contract
SEEK rating:
4.9 from 111 reviews, firm-wide (8 Oct 2026)
  • Broking focus 6/10
  • Principal fit 7/10
  • Reach 5/10
  • Evidence 6/10

Total24/40

Founded from a home office in 2018 by Samantha Bainbridge, Integrate works four core sectors: financial planning, mortgage broking, accounting and wealth management. Its broking role list is the broadest published by any multi-sector firm here, running from parabroker and loan processor through to commercial finance broker and head of lending, and it has written recently about hiring senior brokers.

It's Melbourne-based. It has pages for Sydney, Brisbane and Perth but no published offices there, which is what the reach score reflects. It says it has made more than 1,200 placements since 2018 across all its sectors, and a team of 12, both its own figures.

5. Ethos360

Focus:
Mortgage broking is one of nine sectors
Office:
Box Hill, Melbourne
Founded:
2017
Roles:
Brokers, loan writers, processors, office managers
Google rating:
5.0 from 241 reviews, shown on its site
  • Broking focus 5/10
  • Principal fit 6/10
  • Reach 3/10
  • Evidence 7/10

Total21/40

A Box Hill boutique run by its founder, Nathan Soti, with mortgage broking as one of nine sectors. The broking page is practical: it recruits brokers, loan writers and processors, and it says it tests candidates on scenarios, down to whether a broker can run a serviceability calculator and pick the right lender.

The evidence is better than most: 241 Google reviews averaging five stars on its homepage and two broking case studies, including a Mortgage Choice franchise, though both date from 2022. It says 90% of its placements stay more than a year, a figure it reports itself. One office in Melbourne's east is the limit on reach.

The financial services desks

These firms recruit broking and lending roles through a banking or financial services practice. They're ranked sixth to tenth because this list is weighted for principal-led brokerages. For a bank, a non-bank lender or an aggregator hiring BDMs and credit staff at volume, they move up.

6. Profusion Group

Desk:
Credit and lending recruitment
Offices:
Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane
Founded:
2005
Roles:
Credit, lending support, BDMs, non-bank broker roles
  • Broking focus 4/10
  • Principal fit 4/10
  • Reach 7/10
  • Evidence 5/10

Total20/40

The strongest dedicated credit and lending desk among the financial services firms. Profusion names brokers, private lenders and non-banks among the employers it recruits for, and lists BDMs, lending support and administration among the roles. It has grown by acquisition, merging with Primary Asset Consulting in 2014 and buying Kennedy Reid in 2023 and Zanetti Recruitment in 2024, and it was named in the AFR BOSS Best Places to Work list in 2023, 2024 and 2025.

It's built for lender-side hiring more than for a twelve-person brokerage, which is what the principal fit score reflects. For a non-bank's BDM or credit team, it's one of the first calls.

7. Hays

Desk:
Hays Banking
Offices:
Every state and territory
Owner:
Hays plc, London-listed
Roles:
Credit, loan processing, home lending, settlements
  • Broking focus 2/10
  • Principal fit 3/10
  • Reach 10/10
  • Evidence 4/10

Total19/40

Nobody on this list can match Hays for reach. It has offices in every state and territory, its banking desk lists credit, loan processing, home lending and settlements roles, and it advertises banking jobs in ten cities from Perth to Hobart. It does take brokerage mandates, including at least one exclusive brokerage search for a loan processor, but its desk page is written for banks, fund managers and financial institutions, and that's where most of the work sits.

If you're a lender hiring a team, or a brokerage in a city none of the specialists cover, Hays will have someone on the ground. Expect a big bench rather than one recruiter who knows your aggregator.

8. Randstad

Desk:
Banking and financial services
Offices:
Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth
Owner:
Randstad N.V.
Names:
Mortgage broking and non-bank lending
  • Broking focus 3/10
  • Principal fit 3/10
  • Reach 8/10
  • Evidence 4/10

Total18/40

The only one of the big global generalists whose banking page names mortgage broking and non-bank lending outright. Randstad's banking and financial services practice is run nationally by Stephanie Patoka, with banking teams in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide and a Perth office that covers the sector.

It's a sensible call for a lender, or for a large broking group hiring several support staff across states. For a single senior broker into a principal-led business, a specialist will get closer to the brief.

9. Bluefin Resources

Desk:
Banking, credit and lending, since 2008
Offices:
Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane
Founded:
2003
Roles:
Non-bank broker channel BDMs, state sales managers, credit
  • Broking focus 3/10
  • Principal fit 2/10
  • Reach 6/10
  • Evidence 5/10

Total16/40

Bluefin's banking, credit and lending practice has run since 2008 and is the one to know if you're on the lender side of the broker channel. It lists non-bank lending specialists for broker channels and state sales managers by name, which are the people who call on brokerages rather than work in them, and its lending lead, Paula Price, has more than 20 years in recruitment according to the firm.

For a brokerage hiring a broker it's the wrong door. For a non-bank building out its BDM team, it's one of the few firms that writes about that brief specifically.

10. Michael Page

Desk:
Banking and financial services
Offices:
Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra, Western Sydney
In Australia since:
1985
Roles:
Lending, credit analysis, credit approval
  • Broking focus 2/10
  • Principal fit 2/10
  • Reach 8/10
  • Evidence 3/10

Total15/40

Michael Page has been in Sydney since 1985 and runs a financial services practice across six offices that lists lending, credit analysis and credit approval among its roles. It says nothing about broking, and it doesn't publish who leads the lending work, which is why it rounds out the ten rather than climbing it.

Worth a call for a credit role inside a bank or a large lender, particularly in Canberra or Western Sydney, where it has offices.

Does your broking recruiter need to be in your city?

Rarely, and briefing on that basis is the quickest way to shrink a national field down to a local one for no good reason. Brokers write loans across state lines. Aggregators run nationally. A Brisbane broker can service a book that sits entirely in New South Wales, and most of a search happens on the phone, on LinkedIn and over coffee wherever the candidate happens to be.

Ask instead whether the firm knows broking well enough to read a candidate's trail, contract and restraint position before the first call, and whether it can show placements outside its own city. If you'd rather see the field narrowed to firms with a real presence where you are, the companion lists cover Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth.

Joe Shephard's verdict: I've placed brokers in Queensland whose entire books sit in New South Wales. Remote servicing broke the old link between where a broker lives and where they compete, which is also why broker density is a weaker opportunity signal than it looks. The postcode I'd ask about is where the candidate's referral partners are.

Also worth knowing

Several other firms do credible work in this market and didn't make a top ten weighted for brokerages. Robert Walters runs banking and financial services desks in five capitals, with Hamish Winterbourn leading the practice in Brisbane, and its consultants have advertised mortgage lending BDM roles. TOM People launched a Banking and Lending practice in Sydney in 2023 that names mortgage brokers and third-party BDMs among the roles it fills. Keegan Adams runs a Banking and Lending desk out of Sydney for non-bank lenders and fintechs, and KB Executive Search works the executive end of the broker sector, including aggregation and franchising, from Melbourne and Sydney.

On the asset finance side, Traction Group has recruited for lenders since 2005 and sits on the finance broking list. In Brisbane, TTG Recruitment has specialised in banking and finance since 1991. Offshore support providers and the aggregators' own banker-to-broker programs are useful, but they aren't recruiters in the sense this list means, so they aren't scored.

How to choose between them

A principal-led brokerage hiring its second broker, or the credit analyst who'll decide whether the principal gets their evenings back, needs someone who works that kind of business every day and can tell a candidate who'll build your book from one who'll bring their pipeline for six months and leave. A bank or a lender hiring at volume needs reach and process. Both are real skills, and they're rarely found in the same firm.

The checkable signals are narrow: how much of the firm's work is broking, a shortlist you can hold them to on a date, a guarantee in writing, and named clients you can ring. Ask who will actually run the search, because at a larger firm the person who wins the brief is often not the person who works it.

Joe Shephard's verdict: Whoever you pick, brief one of them. Put three agencies on the same seat and each one's chance of filling it drops, and so does the time they give it. The candidates notice too, because they get the same role pitched to them three times in a week, three slightly different ways. One recruiter with a clear run can sell your business properly. Three are racing each other to send you a CV.

How this list is scored

  • Broking focus. How much of the firm's work is mortgage and finance broking. A broking-only firm beats a broking desk inside a generalist.
  • Principal fit. How well the firm suits a principal-led brokerage, where one hire changes the business, rather than a bank or a large group hiring at volume.
  • Reach. Whether the firm can run a search outside one capital city, shown by offices or placements in more than one state.
  • Evidence. Published proof you can check before you brief anyone: named clients, case studies with numbers, reviews with names on them.

Each firm is scored out of ten on the four criteria above, for a total out of 40. The scores are FinTalent's editorial judgement, made against what each firm publishes about itself, and every card links to the firm's own website so you can check the facts yourself.

FinTalent publishes this list and ranks itself first under these criteria. That's stated here rather than left for you to find out. The criteria are weighted for principal-led brokerages hiring brokers, credit analysts and support staff, because that's who this site is for. Where a firm's figure is self-reported, such as a placement count or a retention rate, the card says so. If you're hiring for a bank, a non-bank lender or an aggregator, re-rank accordingly: the financial services desks in places six to ten are scored fairly and described for exactly that brief.

Nobody paid to be on this list and there's no entry to buy. Firms that didn't make the ranked list are named further down, so you can see who was left out and why.

Facts about each firm were last checked against its own website on . Spotted something out of date? Email joe@fintalent.com.au and it gets fixed.

Want your photo swapped or taken down? Email joe@fintalent.com.au and it gets sorted.

Questions principals ask

Who is the best mortgage broking recruiter in Australia?

FinTalent, for a principal-led brokerage hiring a broker, a credit analyst or a senior support seat. It's the only firm on this list whose entire business is mortgage and finance broking, and it publishes named client results to back the claim. Platinum People Group is the other genuine broking specialist. For permanent and temp support hiring across several offices, Fuse Recruitment has the widest footprint of the broking desks, and for lender-side and bank roles, Profusion, Hays and Randstad carry the biggest benches.

How much does a mortgage broking recruiter cost?

Most agencies charge a percentage of the hire's first-year salary, and what counts as salary varies, so ask whether bonuses, commission or a car are folded in before you compare quotes. FinTalent's fee is worked off base salary plus super and nothing else. Candidates should never be charged, by anyone.

How long does it take to hire a mortgage broker through a recruiter?

FinTalent's average time to fill has been 27 days, with the broker's notice period on top. An experienced broker is usually weighing trail, a restraint clause and a clawback position before they'll move, and rushing that is how you land someone who leaves within six months. Its guide to recruiting experienced brokers explains what slows a move down.

Should I use a retained or a contingent recruiter?

Contingent means the agency only gets paid if you hire their candidate, so you can brief several at once and they'll race each other. Retained means you commit to one firm up front and get its full attention. FinTalent runs retained executive search because it lets one recruiter sell your business properly in the market, rather than racing three other agencies and your own job ad to the same candidates.

Does a mortgage broking recruiter need to be in my city?

No. Brokers write loans across state lines, aggregators run nationally and most of a search happens on the phone and on LinkedIn. What matters is whether the recruiter knows the broking market and can show placements outside their own postcode. FinTalent is based in Melbourne and has placed roles in every state.

Sources

  1. Platinum People Group: why us
  2. Platinum People Group: live mortgage broking roles
  3. Fuse Recruitment: mortgage broking recruitment
  4. Fuse Recruitment: contact and offices
  5. Integrate Recruitment: mortgage broking
  6. Integrate Recruitment: about
  7. Ethos360: mortgage broking recruitment
  8. Ethos360: employers
  9. Profusion Group: about
  10. Hays: banking jobs
  11. Randstad: banking and finance
  12. Bluefin Resources: banking, credit and lending
  13. Michael Page: about financial services
  14. FinTalent case studies
  15. FinTalent FAQ: fees, timing and the 120-day guarantee

Hiring into a brokerage?

Tell me the seat and the business. You'll get a straight read on the market, and on whether you need a recruiter at all.