ANZ has revealed that its mortgage ambitions will centre on its own lenders moving forward, but brokers are still continuing to capture more new business at the bank.
Major bank Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) has outlined plans to expand its proprietary mortgage operations after brokers increased their share of its new home loan originations to 71 per cent in FY26.
Releasing its results for the year ended 30 September on Monday (9 November), ANZ identified building out proprietary origination as a strategic priority, despite its own channels contributing a declining proportion of new lending.
Brokers’ share of annual originations rose from 68 per cent in FY25, while proprietary channels’ contribution fell from 32 per cent to 29 per cent.
The shift also extended to outstanding balances, with broker-originated loans accounting for 63 per cent of ANZ’s home loan portfolio at September, compared with 61 per cent a year earlier.
ANZ listed “strengthening” proprietary origination among its key priorities, with investment in mortgage sales capabilities, training and branch lender numbers underpinning the push.
The bank said it would increase branch lender numbers by up to 50 per cent over five years and extend Saturday trading hours at selected branches.
Chief executive Nuno Matos has previously outlined the investment alongside an assurance that ANZ intended to preserve its relationships with intermediaries.
“Without compromising our great broker relationships, we will materially invest in and train our own mortgage sales force, aiming to increase the performance and the number of lenders in our branches by up to 50 per cent over the next five years. This is already underway,” he said.
Major banks pursue more proprietary business
ANZ’s ambitions place it alongside Westpac, National Australia Bank (NAB) and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), which have also prioritised lending through their own channels.
However, their distribution results differ.
Releasing its full year results last week, Westpac revealed that it had increased proprietary originations to 37.2 per cent of new lending in the second half of FY26, from 34 per cent in the preceding half.
Meanwhile NAB’s proprietary share reached 52.5 per cent, up from 47.7 per cent.
CBA is also pursuing direct-channel growth, although its August results showed brokers’ share of new lending had increased from 46 per cent to 49 per cent.
Fewer accounts accompany larger average loans
ANZ’s Australia Retail home loan balances increased 4 per cent over FY26, from $264 billion to $275 billion, including 3 per cent growth in the second half.
Meanwhile, Suncorp Bank’s total lending declined 1 per cent to $72 billion.
Home loan accounts originated during the year fell to 170,000 from 197,000, while average loan size increased from $571,000 to $635,000.
Owner-occupiers represented 60 per cent of new lending, down from 62 per cent, with investors’ share increasing to 40 per cent.
ANZ said its home loan growth remained positive during July and August and exceeded both APRA system housing growth and its major bank competitors, despite aggregate major bank growth turning negative during that period following the federal budget.
ANZ’s slower mortgage growth comes after Westpac and NAB similarly reported sluggish home loan growth.
Westpac’s mortgage growth eased to 2.7 per cent in the second half from 4.2 per cent in the preceding six months.
NAB’s portfolio expanded 1.1 per cent over six months and 3.6 per cent annually, against annual system housing credit growth of around 7 per cent.
NAB also recorded a fall in new lending originations, from $47 billion to $39 billion in the corresponding prior-year half, approximately 17 per cent.
Separately, ANZ’s Australia Retail main-financial-institution share fell 0.4 percentage points to 11.3 per cent.
Borrowers retain buffers as pressure becomes clearer
ANZ reported that 87 per cent of customers were ahead of repayments, compared with 89 per cent a year earlier, alongside $57 billion in offset balances.
Matos said ANZ was supporting business customers facing tougher conditions.
“We are also helping small and medium-sized businesses as they weather a more challenging environment, improve efficiency and build their businesses,” he said.
Turning to households, he said broad resilience was accompanied by more visible pressure among some customers.
“In Australia, retail customers are largely resilient, with the majority ahead of scheduled repayments. However, for some customers, financial pressure did become more evident in the second half,” he noted.
ANZ recorded $582 million in annual credit impairment charges, including a $222 million collective provision charge, $108 million higher than FY25.
Explaining the collective charge, the bank pointed to portfolio expansion and emerging economic risks.
“This reflects portfolio growth together with emerging risk under the evolving macroeconomic backdrop with higher interest rates and costs of living conditions becoming more challenging for our customers,” ANZ said.
ANZ said 60 per cent of Suncorp integration activities were complete at September, and that it was targeting 85 per cent by March 2027 ahead of full customer migration by June.
[Related: Macquarie’s mortgage book nears $200bn as brokers dominate originations]
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