The major bank has seen proprietary lending accelerate by 46 per cent between the financial year 2024 and the end of FY25, as the lender’s new strategic shift drives stronger returns.
Major lender National Australia Bank (NAB) has released its full-year results for the financial year ending September 2025, confirming its new focus on accelerating proprietary lending has delivered results.
Following its pivot to focus on proprietary channel growth in home lending to improve shareholder returns, the major bank announced a 46 per cent increase in proprietary lending for Australian mortgages when comparing the start of FY24 to the end of FY25.
Proprietary channel mortgages grew to $19.5 billion of new Australian home loans (in both personal and business banking) in the half ending September 2025, up from $13.3 billion of new mortgages in the half to September 2024.
NAB’s commitment to driving more business through its own channels saw the proprietary channel become responsible for 41 per cent of new home lending, up from 38 per cent in FY24.
Proprietary flows were 41.4 per cent in the second half of FY25 (2H25) and 40.4 per cent in the prior half (1H25).
According to the bank, this was due to investment in banker capabilities and tools, including onboarding approximately 270 new proprietary home lenders in FY25.
Banker productivity, measured by the value of loans written per active banker in personal banking, rose 27 per cent over the year. This efficiency gain was said to have been supported by enhanced customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities and leveraging its customer lead generation system.
Just over 60 per cent of new home loans were for owner-occupiers in FY25; however, a growing proportion is for investors. Nearly all (96.5 per cent) of all new home loans were variable-rate.
Business lending also saw strong proprietary flows, where the proprietary channel secured around 70 per cent of new and increased loan limits. This follows a major migration to a new business lending platform in 1H25, aimed at delivering faster, more seamless experiences. NAB is Australia’s largest business lender (with 22 per cent of market share and 28 per cent of SME business lending), and business lending grew 1.3 times system over 2H25 at 5.8 per cent. Overall, NAB’s business lending has risen 17 per cent over three years, to $289.5 billion.
The only outlier in the proprietary lending figures was the New Zealand arm, which saw proprietary flows fall to 60.7 per cent as at September 2025, down from 62.0 per cent a year earlier.
Broker flows continue to decline
However, the broker channel, which has driven the majority of broker business in recent years, was still responsible for the majority of new Australian mortgages in FY25.
Around 59 per cent of all new business came from the third-party channel, marking a reduction in market share compared to the 60.1 per cent recorded in the second half of FY24 (2H24) and the 64.9 per cent recorded in the first half of FY24 (1H24).
|
Period |
Proprietary share of new lending |
Broker share of new lending |
|
2H25 (FY25) |
41.4% |
58.6% |
|
1H25 (FY25) |
40.4% |
59.6% |
|
2H24 (FY24) |
39.9% |
60.1% |
|
1H24 (FY24) |
35.1% |
64.9% |
According to NAB’s results, the bank’s loan book increased to $364 billion as at September 2025, with brokers having originated 54 per cent of it.
Digital brand ubank - which is popular with the broker channel - saw its home lending tick up by more than a fifth over the year, increasing 22 per cent to $16.4 billion by September 2025 (up from $13.4 billion at September 2024).
Priorities for FY26
NAB has consistently outlined its three key priorities to drive stronger returns: business banking, deposits, and proprietary home lending and noted that increasing the share of lending through proprietary channels is key to improving its return on equity (ROE) over time.
While NAB’s proprietary growth strategy has seen the proportion of broker flows decline, the bank has reiterated its commitment to the third-party channel and stated it will continue to work to deliver “seamless customer and broker experiences” through ongoing simplification of processes, policies, and systems.
Speaking to The Adviser, Adam Brown, the executive for broker distribution at NAB, explained: "We’re focused on making home lending faster, smarter and more secure for customers. That means investing in modern origination systems and building a streamlined “mortgage factory” to improve turnaround times.
"We’re also strengthening fraud detection through AI and automation, while enhancing digital features like multi-offset accounts and self-service options in our internet banking app.
"These improvements, combined with smarter workflows and productivity tools, help deliver quicker outcomes and give customers greater control over their home loans while also making interactions with NAB simpler for brokers."
Nevertheless, when looking ahead to FY26, NAB confirmed it will continue to focus on growing proprietary lending by recruiting new talent, uplifting banker capability, increasing its lender footprint, and further simplifying and automating the mortgage experience, including leveraging AI solutions as part of its ongoing technology modernisation.
NAB CEO Andrew Irvine told investors that the rise in proprietary lending was “significant and shows our approach is working”.
“We are optimistic we can further support this mix,” he said, flagging the hiring of new bankers and better productivity.
Indeed, the CEO revealed that the bank was going to "keep working hard to improve the penetration of proprietary home lending", as it is "20-30 per cent better returning than the broker book".
“We are making good progress on our key priorities of growing business banking, driving deposit growth and strengthening proprietary home lending. This has been supported by targeted investments in front-line bankers and technology-enabled solutions delivering simpler, faster and safer outcomes. Deposit balances rose 7 per cent over FY25 and new business and retail transaction account openings across Business and Private Banking (B&PB) and Personal Banking (PB) increased 16 per cent.
“Australian home lending drawdowns via our proprietary channels improved to 41 per cent in FY25 from 38 per cent in FY24. Australian business lending balances rose 9 per cent in FY25, with market share gains across both SME and total business lending...
“We remain optimistic about the outlook. NAB has a clear strategy and we are well placed to manage our bank for the long term and deliver sustainable growth and returns for shareholders.”
Speaking to media on Thursday morning (6 November), Irvine added that he believed “housing is Australia’s biggest societal and policy challenge”, noting that NAB recently set an expanded ambition to provide at least $60 billion of financing for housing affordability by 2030.
Overall, NAB reported a $6.7 billion statutory net profit for the year, with cash earnings of $7 billion.
[Related: NAB shifts focus to increase proprietary lending]
