CBA opens fresh front in mortgage wars

Commonwealth Bank subsidiary Bankwest is gearing up to take on Macquarie and ING in lending to “under-serviced” Australians as it looks to grow its home lending book with the help of independent mortgage brokers.

In a two-pronged approach to stem the loss of market share to digital lenders, including Macquarie Bank, CBA has dumped bonus caps to bankers writing home loans, while its subsidiary Bankwest is doubling down on efforts to recruit more independent brokers, who write about 80 per cent of its loans.

While CBA maintains its lead as the nation’s largest lender, the bank has been looking at ways to push back against Macquarie’s pursuit of mortgage holders through the broker channelCredit: Peter Rae

Bankwest managing director Jason Chan on Tuesday unveiled a new website and app that he said was reinvented to meet the needs of not only customers but mortgage brokers.

“We’ve done a lot of research, and we’ve identified this under-serviced group of Australians, and they want simple, digital-only propositions, which are easier to send your money, move your money and provide that security,” Chan said.

“So we built this app from the ground up here in Western Australia for those customers, and we believe we’ve got a winning proposition.”

Macquarie’s home loan portfolio climbed to $131.52 billion in December 2024, according to the most recent data from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, representing a market share of just under 6 per cent to become the fifth-largest lender behind CBA, Westpac, National Australia Bank and ANZ.

While CBA maintains its lead as the nation’s largest lender, the bank has been looking at ways to push back against Macquarie’s pursuit of mortgage holders through the broker channel after developing new technology with fast approval times and competitive pricing.

Bankwest managing director Jason Chan has unveiled his strategy to grow the digital-only bank.

Chan also outlined Bankwest’s strategy to entice a cohort of Australians – in their 30s, with a family, looking for a digital-only bank – to grow its lending book, and double its 1.1 million-strong customer base within the next five years. Bankwest, which has 300,000 home loan customers, commands a market share of 4 per cent.

He said the bank was comfortable with 80 per cent of its loans being written through the broker channel, and while he flagged further investments in driving down the turnaround time for home loans from independent brokers, he did not offer any specifics.

“We’re heavily investing in all parts of that experience on the website, app and broker experience,” Chan said.

UBS analyst John Storey said Bankwest was being used as a “sacrificial lamb” by the CBA, which wants to defend its proprietary channel while also protecting its turf against digital-only banks such as Macquarie.

“The economics of writing business through established channels is going to be far more profitable than an intermediary channel,” Storey said.

“The minute you go through a broker channel, and this is what CBA has been wrestling with the transition to using Bankwest as their broker channel … you have very different structures across your platform, and the per-unit economics and cost structure looks very different.”

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