Asset Finance Broker of the YearFinalist 2026
Business credit analysts turned brokers.
Get to know who you’re working with.
James Allan and Daniel Salajan built their careers in complex business credit, assessing businesses, structuring requests and negotiating with lenders before they began taking on their own clients. Clients now work directly with brokers who understand credit from the inside. James and Dan work ahead rather than reactively: shaping the funding strategy, preparing the business for lenders, negotiating approvals and supporting growth well before the next asset needs funding.
A brokerage built to go further than the easy approval.
Too often, a business with proper accounts, a growing fleet and a complex funding need is treated as another enquiry to place as quickly as possible. A low-doc product can be useful in the right circumstances. It should not be the default simply because nobody has taken the time to understand your financials or prepare a stronger case for a bank.
James and Dan came through credit analysis before becoming brokers. We can read the profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow, tax and reporting position, then explain what a lender is likely to question and what can be addressed before an application goes in. If the numbers support a full-doc approach to a major bank, we will explore it. If another lender or structure makes more sense, we will explain why.
Across our careers, we have worked on thousands of equipment finance transactions representing comfortably more than $1 billion in combined transaction and credit experience. That experience does not replace the work of understanding your particular business. It helps us do that work properly, negotiate with credit teams and plan where the next piece of debt belongs.
MFG is deliberately not built around a sales team or a queue of leads to churn through. You deal directly with us, can meet us on site and can call before there is a deal ready to lodge. We want owners who value a long-term finance relationship: one that can help them move towards better lending options as the business grows.
James Allan
The person clients call about the next machine, the next lender and the bigger funding picture.
James entered equipment finance in 2013 at a large, established brokerage. Offered a broker role, he chose to begin in credit analysis instead. For five years he worked with senior brokers whose long-standing heavy-industry clients were investing millions of dollars a year in plant and equipment. His job was to source approvals, working directly with major banks, second-tier banks, non-banks, private and specialist lenders.
That start shaped how James works today. He understands what a lender needs to see, how to position a transaction and what has to happen between approval and settlement. Over his entire career, James has worked across approximately $500 million in equipment finance transactions. He is comfortable with a single multi-million-dollar asset as well as revolving facilities and complex fleet programs.
James founded MFG in 2022 around ongoing client relationships. He leads the debt-placement strategy, works directly with owners, CFOs and accountants, and travels across Australia to understand businesses on site. His knowledge of heavy equipment means clients can get into the real funding questions quickly, without first explaining how every machine earns its keep.
As a business owner himself, James understands that an equipment decision rarely happens in isolation. It sits alongside payroll, cash flow, contracts, deadlines and the unexpected problems that land on an owner's desk. Clients can ring him before they have a polished plan, talk plainly about what is going on and work through the options together.
Daniel Salajan
A senior credit and banking perspective inside the business, working alongside James and MFG clients.
Dan has spent more than 20 years in finance. He began in the credit team of a private lender, assessing applications from both direct customers and brokers. He then joined Commonwealth Bank, where he moved through senior relationship and corporate banking roles, working with medium to large businesses across equipment finance, working capital, term debt, property finance and wider banking facilities.
Dan later moved into CBA’s broker and agency division and became State Manager of Asset Finance Credit in Victoria. There, he assessed broker-submitted applications and made credit decisions on substantial commercial equipment requirements. The experience gave him a detailed understanding of how banks analyse a business, read its financial position and assess risk.
After leaving CBA in 2016, Dan worked at the same equipment finance brokerage as James. He joined MFG in 2025 as a partner and shareholder. Today he helps shape lender strategy, reviews and prepares complex submissions, negotiates with credit teams and manages transactions through to settlement. Clients work with both James and Dan, drawing on their different experience as one team.
Business owner to business owner.
When you call MFG, you speak with James or Dan. We own this business too. We know what it is like when a machine needs replacing, a contract is about to start, cash flow is tight and a dozen other things need your attention. You can call with a purchase, a problem or an idea that is still taking shape. We will talk it through with you.
MFG is deliberately a two-person brokerage. There is no sales team, no sales targets and no commission bonuses driving the conversation. No commission breath or awkward pitch. We keep our time available to visit clients on site, work with their accountants and bankers, and stay involved between transactions.
Know the business
Meet the people, see the equipment and understand what the next stage of growth requires.
Do the thinking
Work through the financial position, lender exposure and options before deciding where a request belongs.
See it through
Negotiate the approval, manage the details through settlement and remain available for the next decision.
A credit team on your side of the table.
James and Dan worked in business credit before becoming brokers. We can sit down with you and your accountant or CFO, read the profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow, forecasts, depreciation schedules and BAS records, and show you what a lender is likely to question before an application goes in.
A good banker understands their bank. Our role reaches across the whole funding picture: preparing the business, considering different lenders and deciding where each piece of debt belongs. We can work alongside your banker, talk through the numbers with your advisers and help you make a better-informed move, even when there is no immediate transaction to place.
Preparation changes the conversation with a lender.
James brings the client relationship, equipment knowledge and long-term funding plan. Dan brings deep credit analysis and corporate banking experience. Together they can test the numbers, identify what needs work before an application is lodged and make a stronger case to the right lender.
See the client work →The MFG difference.
Deal directly with people who know equipment, credit and the business behind the purchase.
- Owner-to-owner relationship
- Enquiry to settlement
- No internal handballing
- No junior staff
- No sales team
- No KPIs or sales targets
- Major banks and non-bank lenders
- 15 years’ experience
Asset Finance Broker of the YearFinalist 2026
CAFBA Emerging BrokerFinalist 2023
Featured on theElite Broker Podcast
Featured articleLending a hand
What’s the next move for your business?
One machine or a whole fleet, tell us what you’re considering. James and Dan will look at the purchase in the context of the business around it.
Explore the full enquiry form →Please leave both an email address and mobile number so we can get back to you.