Broker market share reaches record high
Mortgage brokers have reached a record share of Australia’s residential mortgage market, accounting for 81.6 per cent of new home loans in the June 2026 quarter.
New data from Cotality, commissioned by the Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia (MFAA) and released in September, shows broker market share increased 0.6 percentage points from the previous record of 81 per cent recorded in the March quarter.
The latest result also marks a 4 percentage point increase from the 77.6 per cent recorded in the June quarter last year.
Brokers facilitated $139.08 billion in new residential lending during the June quarter, $17.49 billion more than the same period last year and the largest volume recorded for a June quarter. The result continues the long-term expansion of the broker channel, with market share increasing 27.7 percentage points over the eight years covered by MFAA survey data.
Broker market share has risen from 53.9 per cent in June 2018 to 81.6 per cent in June 2026, highlighting the growing role of brokers in Australia’s home lending market.
MFAA CEO Anja Pannek said the latest result reinforced the increasingly central role brokers play in helping Australians access home finance.
“Australia is one of only three countries globally, alongside the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, where mortgage brokers facilitate more than 80 per cent of mortgage lending,” Pannek said.
ASIC renews warning over ‘opaque’ private credit market
ASIC chair Sarah Court renewed the corporate regulator’s warning over Australia’s “opaque” private credit market, pointing to the collapse of NSW developer Bathla Group as a stark example of the need for stronger disclosure, oversight, and governance.
Appearing before the parliamentary joint committee on corporations and financial services, Court said the collapse had heightened ASIC’s concerns about the rapidly expanding private credit sector, which has become an increasingly important source of development and commercial finance.
“There have been some troubling developments recently in the private credit sector, most notably with the recent collapse of Bathla,” Court told the committee.
ASIC has been increasing its scrutiny of the sector as private credit funds compete with banks and other traditional lenders to finance property, infrastructure, and businesses.
Court said ASIC’s concerns did not stem from private credit’s role in financing the economy, but from the limited visibility regulators and investors have over wholesale funds, their underlying exposures, and the risks within the market.
“In our view, there is currently a lack of information and insight into wholesale private credit funds, and the limited information that we get in Australia is well behind that of similar jurisdictions,” she said.
Suncorp informs brokers banking products will migrate to ANZ
Suncorp Bank formally told its 1.2 million customers, as well as brokers and aggregators, that it will progressively migrate its banking products, services, and digital platforms to Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) by June 2027.
The communication, issued on 7 September, marks the first official correspondence with customers about the transition and signals the eventual retirement of the Suncorp Bank brand as customers move across to ANZ’s banking environment.
Suncorp Bank said the transition would bring the two banks together under a single ANZ brand, while existing Suncorp Bank teams would continue to support customers throughout the process.
Customers will also gain access to ANZ’s national network of banking specialists and branches, as well as its anti-fraud technology, the bank said, adding that it would continue to invest in the communities it serves.
Suncorp Bank CEO and ANZ managing director Queensland, Bruce Rush, said the communication marked the beginning of a broader program to explain the transition to customers and channel partners.
“Today marks an important step as we begin informing customers about what it means for Suncorp Bank to become ANZ,” he said.
“As Suncorp Bank becomes ANZ over time, we’ll keep our same focus on our customers. We are committed to making this move straightforward, safe and well-supported, and ensuring customers still see familiar faces and continue to be part of a bank that helps communities thrive.”
Associations push targeted lending reforms for first home buyers
The Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia (MFAA) and Finance Brokers Association of Australia (FBAA) both called for targeted lending reforms to help more first home buyers enter the property market while stressing that changes to credit policy cannot replace the need for greater housing supply.
Appearing before the Senate’s select committee on intergenerational housing inequity, MFAA CEO Anja Pannek said unnecessary complexity and inflexibility in the lending system could prevent borrowers who could sustainably afford a home from accessing finance.
Pannek said the MFAA was not advocating weaker responsible lending standards, but wanted greater consistency in processes such as loan discharges and broader access to government home ownership schemes through the broker channel.
She noted Housing Australia data showed about 74 per cent of first home buyers accessing government schemes did so through a broker.
Meanwhile, FBAA CEO Leo Gagic said lending documentation and credit-policy settings should be examined to determine whether they were unnecessarily restricting access to finance.
FBAA regulatory compliance specialist David Carson suggested lenders could be given greater scope to consider future income growth when assessing younger borrowers, potentially through a “safe harbour” arrangement.
However, Carson stressed that any flexibility should not encourage reckless lending or excessive borrowing.
He also raised concerns about the impact of LMI on borrowers with deposits below 20 per cent, pointing to government schemes such as the 5 per cent Deposit Scheme and Help to Buy as alternatives that could reduce this barrier.
