Banks mortgage figures show signs of mergers

Monday May 25, 2009

The latest banking industry review report by Brandmanagement has concluded that during the March quarter all four major banks in Australia have expanded their mortgage books. However the report found that the merged Westpac/St George Bank and Commonwealth Bank/BankWest took the lion's share of 85 percent.
The report showed that mortgage books in Australia recorded $26.6 billion in the March quarter with the four major banks responsible for $22.7 billion (CommBank/BankWest at $15 billion and Westpac/St George at $7.7 billion).

Commonwealth Bank received 56 percent of the major banks figures with possible reason being consumer going with a big brand during economic crisis.

Commonwealth Banks dominance is predicted to continue after the October approval of a CommBank and BankWest merger, thereby creating a major market share holder in the banking and finance industry. However, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission indicated that they are not pleased with this market dominance and that any future merger proposals may not be approved.

The Brandmanagement report showed that while both ANZ bank and NAB recorded solid mortgage book growth, it equaled less than 15 percent of the total while non big-four banks recorded a decline on their mortgage books of $1.8 billion for the same time period.

Banking experts have stated that what this report shows is the complete dominance of the industry by the four major banks across the banking sector with their holding of 72 per cent of all outstanding mortgages by value, valued at $730 billion, an increase from the 2008 report of 57.5 per cent of all mortgages, valued at $539 billion.

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