Big banks have clawed their way to reign supreme in the home loan market. Figures show the banks have 90% of the mortgage market. Two years ago non-banks held 20% of the market, but today it is just 10%.
Westpac and Commonwealth have recently announced that although overal lending volume was down, the banks still have healthy profits and targets are still being met.
ANZ's newish chief executive, Mike Smith, may rue putting all his cards on the table in what now looks like a naive public strategy to become an Asia-focused bank. As Andrew Dickinson, banking partner at KPMG, explains: "Banks with overseas operations are now seen as more risky than domestically focused local rivals." ANZ is the cheapest of the big banks on the stockmarket.
The other bank with overseas operations is NAB, which has a British business and some operations in the US. NAB also has an untested new chief executive in Cameron Clyne. NAB is the second-cheapest big bank on the stockmarket.
ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, NAB and Westpac are all announcing that business is good, however two banks stand out as big winners - Commonwealth and Westpac.
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