A non-bank lender is a financier that doesn't hold an Authorised Deposit-Taking Institution (ADI) licence under the Banking Act 1959. Without the ADI status, the lender can't take retail deposits and isn't subject to APRA's prudential capital rules, but is regulated by ASIC under the Australian Financial Services Licence regime.
Non-bank lenders fund their loan books from wholesale capital: private credit funds, warehouse facilities, family-office mandates, institutional investors, and (in the consumer space) RMBS issuance. The funding structure shapes the products, non-banks typically don't compete on long-term P&I residential mortgages where the deposit-funded majors are structurally cheaper, but compete strongly on bridging, development, commercial, and self-employed lending where credit policy flexibility matters more than headline rate.
The Australian non-bank segment includes large, established lenders (Pepper, Liberty, La Trobe) and a long tail of specialist private credit firms. Archer Wealth sits in the specialist private credit tier, small-and-medium-ticket first mortgages, bridging, development and commercial files.
Non-bank does not mean unregulated. ASIC regulates non-banks. Consumer credit non-banks operate under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act (NCCP). Wholesale-only non-banks operate under the wholesale-investor exemptions in the Corporations Act.