Despite a year-long effort by the Australian government to strengthen competition in the mortgage market, small lenders have not managed to break the dominance of the country’s major banks.
In a report by BusinessDaily, the “big four” banks have hardly ceded their market share since Treasurer Wayne Swan pledged to change the competitive landscape of the mortgage market in 2010.
The big four — Westpac, Commonwealth Bank (CBA), ANZ and National Australia Bank (NAB) — increased their mortgage books by A$61 billion (S$81 billion) and accounted for 86.7 percent of the market share, compared with the previous year’s 87.3 percent.
According to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, these banks have A$926 billion (S$1.23 trillion) worth of mortgages in their books, from a total pool of A$1.07 trillion (S$1.42 trillion).
CBA stayed the market leader, with A$305 billion (S$405 billion) of mortgages, including A$44 billion (S$58 billion) at subsidiary BankWest.
Westpac came in next with A$283 billion (S$376 billion), while NAB and ANZ have A$176 billion (S$234 billion) and A$161 billion (S$214 billion) worth of mortgages respectively.
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