Macquarie outpaces non-major competitors

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) recently released its new Monthly Authorised Deposit Taking Institutions Statistics (MADIS), which is an updated version of its previously labelled Monthly Banking Statistics.

The new data set has been updated as part of APRA’s implementation of the Economic and Financial Statistics (EFS) collection, which is designed to better align with international reporting standards.

APRA’s latest data has revealed that of the five non-major lenders with the largest mortgage books, Macquarie Bank reported the strongest portfolio growth in July.

Macquarie’s home loan portfolio increased by approximately $800 million, from $37.3 billion in June to $38.1 billion.

The portfolio increase was largely driven by a spike in its owner-occupied book, which grew by approximately $500 million from $21 billion to $21.5 billion, while its investment portfolio rose by approximately $300 million from $16.3 billion to $16.6 billion.

Growth in Macquarie’s mortgage portfolio has coincided with a strengthening of the bank’s presence in the third-party channel.

According to the Australian Finance Group’s (AFG) latest index – which is based off data collected from the aggregator’s network of 3,000 brokers – Macquarie’s share of home loans lodged in the third-party space doubled in the three months to 30 June 2019, rising from 4.9 per cent to 9.7 per cent.

As at 30 June, Macquarie – which relies almost solely on the broker channel to distribute its home loan products – ranked second overall in terms of its share of the third-party space, behind only the Commonwealth Bank.

Of the remaining non-major banks with the largest mortgage books, ING was the only other lender to report portfolio growth, with its book increasing by approximately $200 million from $48.5 billion to $48.7 billion.

ING’s portfolio growth came exclusively through the owner-occupied channel, with its book increasing to $39.4 billion. ING’s investment portfolio remained stable at $9.3 billion.

The mortgage books of Suncorp and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank remained largely stable over the month to 31 July, at $43.2 billion and $41.5 billion, respectively.

BOQ was the only non-major in the aforementioned grouping to report a contraction in its portfolio, from $28.1 billion to $28 billion.

A $1.7-billion increase in BOQ’s investment portfolio ($12 billion) was offset by a $1.8-billion contraction in its owner-occupied book.

The release of APRA’s data coincided with the publication of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s monthly Financial Aggregates data, which has revealed that over the month to 31 July 2019, housing credit grew 0.3 per cent, up from 0.2 per cent growth in the previous month.

However, when comparing the 12 months to 31 July 2019 to the previous corresponding period, housing credit growth was down from 5.5 per cent to 3.3 per cent.

When including personal and business lending, total credit grew 0.2 per cent in the month to 31 July (up from 0.1 per cent in June) and 3.1 per cent in the 12 months to July (down from 4.4 per cent in the previous corresponding period).

 [Related: 3 of the big 4 report mortgage book contractions]