The top 10 CFOs in Australian fintech in 2026

Very few people have built the finance function of a new Australian bank. Leslie joined the SME challenger in 2019, before its 2021 float, then the biggest fintech listing of that year, and has scaled it to a $14.7 billion lending book with profit before tax up 34 per cent in FY26. The ex-Morgan Stanley banker's seat spans prudential capital, deposits and a listed register: the full-contact version of the fintech CFO job.

Eight and a half years in the seat, including the non-bank lender's 2021 ASX float, one of the biggest of that year. McGrath followed it with a record first half in 2026 on originations, presented alongside the chief executive on 19 August. Funding a non-bank lender through a rate cycle, a listing and a mortgage war without drama is exactly the kind of CFO work that never trends and always compounds.

The most conventional banking pedigree on the list, running the least conventional balance sheet. Martin McLeod spent seventeen years at Citi, including a stint as CFO of Citi Philippines and then running planning and analysis for the US consumer bank, before a spell at Affirm and the Revolut Australia seat. That is a career built on regulated retail banking economics, which is precisely what a fast-scaling neobank subsidiary needs in the chair while it builds out a local licence and product set.

The infrastructure seat almost nobody outside lending sees. Harper came out of the CFO chair at SocietyOne and into Clearmatch when the platform was spun out of it in 2017, taking an executive director role and a shareholding alongside the finance function rather than just the title. Eight years on, the platform has processed $10 billion in credit requests and more than 240 million transactions across Australia and New Zealand, and the group now runs an insurance premium funding book as well as the lending software underneath it. She was named CFO of the Year at the 2017 Women in Finance Awards on the way in. Scale scores lower here than the listed lenders because the volume sits in private books. Tenure and delivery do not.

Under Wright, ex-deputy CFO of Angle Auto Finance with divisional CFO stints at Westpac and Macquarie, the consumer lender pushed its loan book past $2 billion, up 34 per cent, on record originations of $1.23 billion in FY26. Growing a consumer book that fast while turning second-half cash profitability positive (despite a statutory full-year loss) is a funding-desk achievement as much as a growth story.

Inflection delivered: Wisr posted its maiden full-year cash profit in FY26 with the loan book up 32 per cent past $1 billion. Lewis, ex-KPMG and Avoka, took a sub-scale consumer lender the market had written down and walked it across the profitability line. Smallest company in the ranked ten, biggest percentage turn.

The stored-value seat requires rare dual expertise: financial rigor and revenue generation. Since joining as Global CFO in April 2024, Mike Ammendolia delivered Prezzee's first-ever profitable year in its decade-long history while boosting top-line sales 54% to $4 billion and scaling from 4 to 7 global markets. By offshoring and automating month-end close and building strong regional hubs, he was able to step up as the Global Chief Revenue Officer and launch into the AFSL regulated payments infrastructure space with PrezzeePay in November 2025. With his Ex-Deloitte foundations and ASX financial leadership at Zip Co during the BNPL Boom, Mike exemplifies the modern, growth-driven CFO.

Two months in the seat but scored on the strength of what she brings to it: eight years as CFO of ASX-listed OFX, BT Financial Group before that, and around 11 years at GE. Verth joined the lender in July 2026 with its $3.1 billion portfolio growing at 22 per cent. An experienced listed-company CFO choosing a fintech lender is itself a signal about where this sector's talent market is heading.

Four years running finance at MA Financial's residential mortgage business, which he joined near its launch and has held through the build-out of the loan book. Before that a decade at Pepper Money across ANZ controllership, business finance and pricing, which is the non-bank lending apprenticeship in one CV.