'I don’t take for granted how quickly brokers have trusted us': Ben Keenan reflects on Pallas’ UK launch

When Ben Keenan (pictured above) set up Pallas Capital's UK division in January 2026, he wasn't arriving as a stranger to the market. He first moved from Australia to London in 2005 with construction contractor Multiplex, initially to oversee litigation relating to the completion of Wembley Stadium.

What followed was an 18-year UK career: general counsel, then director of strategy, and a board seat through a period in which Multiplex grew from roughly £200m to £1.5bn in annual turnover and over 1,000 staff.

Later, Ben ran his own small-scale residential development business in and around London, acquiring sites just before the pandemic and delivering through it, which he describes candidly as one of the hardest times in his career. He returned to Australia at the end of 2021 and joined Pallas Capital, before the opportunity arose to bring the platform to the UK.

"It doesn't feel new to me, being back in the UK. A lot of my adult working career has been here, a lot of my professional network is here, and a lot of my friends are here too."

Market reception: faster and busier than expected

Six months in, Ben acknowledged that the response to Pallas Capital's launch in the UK has outpaced his own expectations.

However, enquiry volume was modest in the earliest weeks, but picked up markedly from around the three-month mark, shifting from speculative interest to executable transactions.

Ben said: "I expected it would take a long time to earn our place in a market as sophisticated and established as this one. Brokers have trusted us more quickly than I anticipated, and I don't take that for granted."

Ben attributed much of this to the team he built around him: originators whose relationships with brokers travelled with them.

"The relationships our originators bring with them are the number one reason we've built momentum this quickly. But that only works because there's a product behind it that brokers are comfortable recommending."

The borrower profile has tracked closely with expectations: experienced SME developers and SME property owners repositioning or developing assets, broadly consistent with the borrower profile Pallas lends to in Australia.

Challenges and competition

Ben explained that growth has come with its own tension, that of balancing the eagerness to deploy capital against the discipline of waiting for the right loans.

In the first couple of months, the team chose to be selective rather than risk over-promising to borrowers before the operational capacity was in place to deliver. Today, the team stands at 26.

He added that the wider market backdrop has added complexity. The circumstances under which some lenders have exited the market have affected how investment banks think about participating in this asset class.

Ben described this shift as less about individual counterparties and more an institutional recalibration of appetite, with capital providers now favouring routes such as back leverage to institutional sponsors rather than direct senior positions in securitised structures.

"Events like this don't change the underlying appetite for the asset class, but they do change, for a while, how capital wants to participate. The capital is still there; the market just needs time to settle on structures everyone's comfortable with."

On competitor pricing moves, including recent entrants cutting bridging rates, Ben is measured, seeing much of it as aimed at a different, more volume-driven segment of the bridging market rather than the more structured, complex end where Pallas competes.

Certainty of execution

Ben insisted that what borrowers and brokers value most isn't necessarily raw speed, but certainty. That means investing in senior decision-makers who can form a genuine credit opinion early, rather than issuing indicative terms without real conviction behind them.

"Brokers and borrowers don't just want a fast decision. They want a reliable one. We'd rather take a bit longer to give someone real certainty than move quickly and let them down further down the line."

Having developed projects himself, Ben approaches every enquiry with an understanding of the time and personal investment that’s at stake for the borrower.

"Every time I look at a loan enquiry, I remind myself this is someone's dream. I understand how invested people are, and also how easy it is to talk yourself into numbers that don't really stack up. Responsible lending means being disciplined enough to say no when the deal doesn't work, even when everyone wants it to."

Ben saw a broader shift in deal complexity: more bespoke, heavily negotiated transactions rather than straightforward bridging, which he expects will continue to reward lenders with genuine underwriting depth over those competing purely on speed or headline pricing.

Speaking about the wider market community, Ben shared: “I don't need to be everywhere myself, but I do enjoy getting out and building connections with other people in the market; there's more common ground with other lenders than people might expect."

Looking ahead, Pallas’ intent is to keep growing within the same framework that's underpinned the first six months: staying competitive on pricing, leverage and structuring.

Despite challenges in the wider development finance market, Ben remained confident there are good opportunities to be had.