Major banks roundtable 2025: CBA, Westpac, NAB, ANZ, Macquarie gather round the table

Anyone expecting a buttoned-up, conservative affair when representatives from Australia’s biggest banks – nay, biggest corporations – gathered for MPA’s Major Banks Roundtable at Cafe Sydney in September would have had a pleasant surprise.

Rather, participants had a lively, animated and kinetic discussion about the biggest themes impacting the broking market in 2025. Their passion for the mortgage industry shone throughout the hour-long, seven-question roundtable, as did their abundance of knowledge on themes spanning broker demands, channel conflict, digital mortgages, market competition and merger activity.

It was perfect timing for such a discussion, occurring in the hours preceding the Reserve Bank of Australia’s August interest rate call. As we now know, the RBA chose to cut rates for the third time in a year. An avalanche of correspondence from the very banks represented around the table immediately followed.

Each of the five major banks present at the table – Commonwealth Bank, NAB, ANZ, Westpac and Macquarie Bank – opted to pass on the 25 basis points cut in full, albeit with varying degrees of immediacy.

The panellists

• Adam Brown, Executive, broker distribution, NAB (pictured, third from left)
• Ben Magnus, Head of strategic partnerships, retail broker, ANZ (pictured, far left)
• Baber Zaka, General manager of third party banking, Commonwealth Bank (pictured, far right)
• Wendy Brown, Head of broker distribution, Macquarie Bank (pictured, second from left)
• Sarah Willsallen, Head of broker distribution, Westpac (pictured, centre)

Brokers

• Amelia Pignone, Owner/senior lending specialist, LendX (pictured, third from right)
• Jim Psirakis, Principal and finance broker, Pegasus Home Loans (pictured, second from right)

It was a perfect illustration of the pressure Australia’s largest financial institutions face in providing the best products on market to attract brokers’ and customers’ attention.

Roundtable participants also heard from two of Australia’s leading brokers – Amelia Pignone of LendX and Jim Psirakis of Pegasus Home Loans – who grilled them on matters close to the broking industry’s hearts.

As some of the biggest companies in Australia with many moving parts, how do you ensure that you provide the flexibility that today’s broker demands?

Sarah Willsallen dove right in, stating that flexibility “is at the heart of our approach at Westpac as we want to support as many customers as we can”.

She pointed to Westpac’s credit scenario hotline as a perfect example of the bank’s approach to flexibility. Run by senior credit managers, the hotline gives brokers direct access to senior credit managers to brainstorm, you guessed it, credit scenarios.

“We’re always listening and adapting to broker feedback, including where they’d like us to see us change or amend the hotline,” said Willsallen.

Broker feedback was certainly a running theme of the roundtable discussion.

Ben Magnus explained how ANZ uses its ‘voice of broker’ survey to guide policy rollout. The survey “gives us great intel into where we need to be better and stronger from a process or policy perspective”, said Magnus.

“We’ve been using our survey results to craft the new initiatives that we’re going to roll out,” he added, calling attention to enhancements to ANZ’s broker portal and home loan calculators as examples. “We encourage our brokers to continue to give us feedback.”

At Macquarie Bank, Wendy Brown said, “we’re built for brokers to confidently deliver better outcomes – and flexibility is at the core of that. We know that no two brokerages are the same, so we actively listen to feedback from sole operators right through to the largest offices to make sure our support works across the full spectrum.”

Macquarie Bank has also built the ability for pooled support staff to access its broker portal, allowing brokers and their support teams to see status updates and existing customer information whenever they need it.

“They can also chat with us securely 24/7 so they can manage their workloads more flexibly and leverage a broader range of expertise to better serve their clients,” Brown said. “Our focus is not just on supporting new business but also on helping brokers look after their existing clients, making it simpler and faster to deliver the right outcomes, every time.”

Adam Brown at NAB also drilled home how important broker feedback is in adapting policy. The bank goes the extra mile by conducting broker forum groups to hear them out in person. “Quite often, we bring brokers together for around-the-table conversations,” Brown said. “It’s a chance for us to propose ideas and gather feedback but also invite brokers to share what’s on their minds.”

He stressed the importance of brokers adapting to their customers’ needs. “Brokers are not only small business owners themselves; they also play a critical role in supporting other business owners and customers,” he reminded the roundtable.

To assist, NAB regularly shares insights such as business sentiment surveys and customer trend data with brokers to support their decision-making and client conversations.

Before the discussion moved to Baber Zaka from CommBank, the two brokers present shared their thoughts on whether their flexibility needs are being met by the big banks.

Jim Psirakis from Pegasus Home Loans explained how he had seen different majors develop different niches over time, whether that was Westpac’s one-year offering for self-employed clients, ANZ’s Simpler Switch policy or the 1% assessment rates from NAB and CommBank.

The banks are reacting fast to market changes, said Psirakis, adding that BDM support remains good across the board.

“It helps our business, it makes us efficient and knowledgeable, it makes the banks look productive, and it keeps the clients happy,” he said.

Amelia Pignone at LendX echoed Psirakis’ positive comments, particularly around policy changes in the self-employed space.

Speaking of niches, Zaka then explained how CommBank’s role is to enable brokers to tap into different segments of the market as they see fit, allowing them to develop unique selling points to offer customers.

How does CommBank do that? “That all comes down to having a fundamental, deep knowledge of our brokers through our relationship managers and of our customers, ultimately to understand what the needs of those segments are,” said Zaka.

Zaka brought up CommBank’s new broker-tiering model, which offers different levels of relationship manager support to brokers at different stages of their career. The goal is to “provide brokers with the services that they need to flexibly grow their business”, he said.

Representatives from the broking community tell me that channel conflict is an ongoing concern. What’s being done to tackle this?

Though it’s become less of an issue over time, brokers still cite channel conflict as a concern for them: 35% of brokers, to be precise, per MPA’s 2025 Brokers on Banks survey.

Channel conflict occurs when lenders compete with brokers by offering better deals and exclusive incentives to borrowers for taking out loans directly with the bank.

It was pertinent to kick this discussion off with Zaka, given that CommBank has copped the most flack over alleged channel conflict.

“We take channel conflict very seriously and have measures to address it. This includes a team that investigates and works with brokers to ensure a fair decision,” Zaka said in response to the question.

The table then heard about the brokers’ experience with channel conflict. “It’s a real thing, it’s happened to us,” said Pignone. However, she acknowledged that it works both ways – brokers must provide “the best level of service so that the customer doesn’t feel the need to go into a branch”.

Nonetheless, Pignone rattled off numerous instances of a bank approaching one of her clients with an enticing deal.

Psirakis has encountered similar situations, though he agreed that it “probably comes down to a branch level as opposed to a bank-wide issue”. But it does happen, “and we are reluctant to send out clients to the branch for this reason”, he added.

Magnus shared that ANZ has an understanding “around the value a broker brings to the bank”. ANZ’s home loan business has full oversight of broker, branch and mobile distribution – the accountability lies with the bank to ensure that broker-originated customers are respected for the channel they have chosen to use.

At Macquarie – a branchless bank with over 95% of its home loans coming from brokers – channel conflict is obviously less of an issue. But at prior organisations, Brown has seen channel conflict play out across the industry, and she had some thoughts on how to address it.

“If a customer comes to us through a broker, we firmly believe that relationship should be maintained,” she said. “We ask all customers coming to our direct channel whether they’re working with a broker. If they are, the customer is referred back to the broker to ensure consistency and support for that relationship.”

The discussion shifted to NAB, with Adam Brown emphasising that banks seek to support customers through their channel of choice.

“Channel conflict arises when you don’t have clarity of roles,” he said. “We’ve worked hard to ensure that clarity. In our contact centres, broker-introduced customers are directed to a dedicated broker-service team, so their relationship is recognised and protected.”

Brown added that NAB has reinforced this approach by developing scripts for its service teams and aligning resources so that customers are always supported through the channel they choose, delivering a more consistent and enhanced customer experience as a result.

At Westpac, Willsallen drew attention to recent leadership changes. Willsallen is relatively new to the role, having taken over from Warren Shaw in January, while Shaw moved internally into the role of national general manager, home lending distribution.

“We’re very fortunate,” Willsallen said of the Westpac leadership team. “Warren Shaw [is] passionate about mortgage brokers. He understands the industry and the important role brokers play in supporting customers to achieve their home loan dreams.”

Westpac’s culture “is one of collaboration”, said Willsallen. That includes collaboration between direct and brokered home lending channels. “On the infrequent occasions when channel conflict does arise, we act promptly and decisively to resolve matters,” she said.

Broker question: Major banks have launched multiple digital home loan offerings, including Unloan, ANZ Plus and Westpac Digital, in the last few years. Are you looking to invest more heavily in this space, and will it be to the detriment of investment in the broker channel?

Psirakis fielded the first broker question of the day with a pointed question about where major banks’ priorities lie. Broadly speaking, the responses reiterated that the customer experience must come first – although digital mortgages only make up a slither of these experiences for now.

Having recently welcomed Nuno Matos as chief executive, ANZ is conducting a strategic review into ANZ Plus and the role it plays within the bank, Magnus said.

“From a channel perspective, we want to ensure that we serve and support customers irrespective of the channel they choose to engage,” said Magnus. “We need to be clear on process and systems to be able to do that and ensure the proposition offered meets the needs of customers and brokers. It doesn’t impact or challenge the direct investment of the broker because we’ll go where the customer tells us to.”

Magnus drew attention to customers’ overwhelming preference for working with brokers. “As we know, over 76% of customers choose to use a broker – that’s over 65% for ANZ from a flow perspective – so we’ll continue to be sharp and invest in our broker channel,” he said.

At Westpac, “we see technology investment as channel agnostic because it’s the same mortgage origination system”, said Willsallen. “We innovate to provide a really simple, clean, easy experience for all our customers, regardless of the channel.”

Wendy Brown said, “Taking out a mortgage isn’t like buying a jumper online; it’s the biggest financial decision most people will make. So it’s not surprising that more and more customers are choosing to use a broker – they get the benefit of an expert with lots of experience, they get a highly personalised experience, and they don’t have to pay for it.”

Brown also noted that digital mortgages remain a very small part of the overall market.

NAB’s Adam Brown echoed this, saying, “The segment is less than 5% and has been for years, so for now it’s not a sizeable market.” However, that could change in the future, he added. “I go back to my comment around being where the customer wants to be. If the customer wants to be digital at some point in the future, as a major bank you want to be there, sure. But it’s not growing, it hasn’t grown, so we’re not there at this point.”

Unloan is one of the most prominent digital loan products on the market, but Zaka doesn’t see digital loan investment as detrimental to brokers. “They’re two very different product and service propositions for very distinct customer bases,” said Zaka. “The customer who wants to go and get advice and actually have a relationship that’s more than just foundational with a broker, that’s multi-years or the whole life cycle, is not the same customer that would be comfortable with going through a digital channel.”

Zaka also noted, “I have seen the type of personal support brokers offer their customers – and they’ve got nothing to worry about.”

We’re in the midst of a long-awaited rate-cutting cycle. How are you driving your third party channel to seize the opportunities and safeguard itself against market competition?

Wendy Brown reminded the roundtable that Macquarie Bank was quick off the starting blocks following the RBA’s May rate cut, having passed the 25bps reduction through to customers after three days, compared to the 12-day market average. And Macquarie did it again on the same day the roundtable met.

“So we’re very responsive, and the feedback from customers has been great,” said Brown. “We also make sure that we’re equipping brokers with the right tools. Tools like our servicing calculator are updated immediately as well, so brokers can have a lot of confidence they’re absolutely up to date and are giving customers the recommended outcome.”

Magnus leaned into ANZ’s reputation in the self-employed space, saying, “We’ve homed in on ensuring that our self-employed policy meets or even exceeds the expectations of where customers need to access funding. We’ve recently launched some changes to make it easier for self-employed customers to secure funding from ANZ and to remove friction points in the assessment of self-employed income.”

Westpac is “proud to have made substantial improvements to the overall broker experience in the last few years”, said Willsallen. “We’ve reduced our time to decision by 43%, and we’re now leading the majors on one-day settlement, enabling us to seize the opportunity in the current market.”

Willsallen highlighted the investments Westpac has made in processing systems and people alike. The bank has without a doubt been on a hiring spree, with industry figureheads Adam Croucher, Ray Esho and Louise Rainger coming into the Westpac fold in recent times.

“These are established industry people with deep connections and experience. They know the broker value proposition,” said Willsallen. “We want to really show that we’re a brand who believes in broker and we’re here to win.”

NAB’s economic team has been forecasting the rate reduction cycle, explained Adam Brown. “We know some customers are doing it tough, and we’ve been providing tools to both brokers and customers to support them where they may want to manage their repayments.”

Brown gave some examples of how NAB is putting this into action, including different models of repayment reductions, multi-offset accounts that give customers flexibility to manage savings across multiple accounts while reducing interest, and adding HELP debt assessment into serviceability.

CommBank is “very aware” of the spike in broker activity during rate movements, said Zaka. “Customers want to know, ‘What does this mean for me?’ and that creates real pressure.”

To support brokers during this period, Zaka explained how the bank is rolling out targeted educational content that brokers can share directly with clients, reducing repetitive tasks.

“We’re redesigning tools and processes to cut through the noise so brokers can focus on what matters,” he said. “It’s about helping brokers work more efficiently and protect their competitive edge.”

CommBank is looking into “how we give our top-tier brokers tips and suggestions on using the data that we have and which customers they should be reaching out to”, Zaka added.

It’s a fine line between reaching out to brokers and spamming them with communication, though. As Pignone said, “When a rate cut happens, we’re flooded with communication.”

In Psirakis’ opinion, the banks should mainly focus their communication on when their new rates kick in. “That’s important for us as well, just to get a guide,” he said.

Broker question from Amelia Pignone: Australia’s mortgage market is one of the most competitive in the world, and brokers play a huge part in driving that competition. How do the major banks plan to remain competitive in a broker-driven landscape that increasingly rewards transparency and speed? And should we be expecting loyalty discounts for brokers in the form of LMI benefits?

Wendy Brown made clear that LMI benefits are not part of the plan.

Lenders mortgage insurance is certainly a hot topic. Used for low-deposit home loans, LMI is taken out by a bank to safeguard itself against default risk, with the cost passed down to the borrower.

Most banks have LMI waivers for eligible professionals such as doctors, lawyers and accountants. However, Brown is sceptical about their usefulness. “The segments that actually have been given LMI waivers aren’t 100% the best-performing segments,” she said. “For us, we haven’t seen it as a great customer outcome or opportunity for our brokers.”

Credit policy should first and foremost be driven by market demand, Willsallen explained, saying, “When we’re looking at what areas we want expand our appetite in, we will ask, ‘how big is the cohort, how many people does it impact, and therefore how big is the market opportunity?’”

A great deal of time, effort and resources goes into implementing policy changes, added Willsallen. “When we’re prioritising [policy changes], we assess how many customers we’d get to help, as a key criteria in determining what we pursue.”

Zaka said, “What I firmly believe in is that brokers who do consistent business with us, we should give a premium service to. While we want to give a great service to all brokers, and all customers will receive the same experience behind it, we want to grow brokers who want to consistently consider CBA offering to support the needs of their customers.”

NAB has seen success in leveraging the bank’s capabilities and knowledge to support brokerages seeking growth, Adam Brown explained. “Our professional services team has had success working with broker businesses in helping fund their growth,” he said.

Access to NAB’s support systems isn’t limited by the size of the brokerage. “The opportunity for major banks is to help smaller brokerages grow by providing services and scale that second-tier lenders can’t always offer,” Brown said.

“At ANZ, we focus on our proposition rather than LMI waivers,” Magnus said. “Our Brokerology education platform is just celebrating its first year. That has on-demand training for brokers no matter where they’re at in their journey.”

Magnus believes LMI plays a role in providing protection for potential high-risk lending, and that waivers could increase risk exposure; however, certain industries and professionals already benefit from waivers due to the strength of these segments.

There have been ebbs and flows over time, but the data shows that major banks’ share of broker-originated lending has reduced over the years. Why is that, and is it a concern for you?

“I think the brokers have created the competition,” Magnus kicked off with. “It’s a competitive market, so brokers that have come to the market have found avenues for new lending in different segments by serving their customers’ needs. Therefore, new lenders have emerged to cater to the different lending scenarios, alongside new policies, processes and systems to support them. This only strengthens the broker market from a client solution perspective.”

The table concurred with Magnus’s take. “The question isn’t about, are we getting more of the total market, but are we looking after more customers? Are we meeting more customers’ needs? And we really see that that’s happening,” said Wendy Brown.

Adam Brown added, “When brokers handle 76% of all lending in Australia, it’s natural that some niches will emerge where majors don’t traditionally operate. We’re seeing a rise of private lending, high-LVR lending and non-conforming, near prime lending. That reflects the fact that brokers are helping a much broader range of customers access homeownership, including segments that sit outside core areas where major banks typically operate.”

Zaka doesn’t see the reduced share of broker-originated lending as something to be concerned about. “It’s a strength of the industry that we allow such competition,” he said. “It’s one of the reasons I love this industry. It’s a competitive market out there, and brokers and customers will choose where they will play.”

Which is not to say that Zaka doesn’t want to be growing in the broker space. “That’s the challenge to myself and all of us to actually step up our game if we want to play in those spaces,” he said.

Willsallen added, “While the landscape’s evolving, we know that competition drives innovation and a focus on service excellence. We’re 100% supportive of that. It’s an opportunity to continue to improve and differentiate, whilst remaining competitive and managing mortgage returns with the right balance of risk, margin and volume.”

In contrast to the data, the roundtable’s two brokers said they have actually been doing higher volumes at the major banks in recent times, especially in the past 12–18 months in Psirakis’ case.

“The main reason is because competition has driven innovation,” said Psirakis. “Also, the majors have stepped up with their policy changes, especially around self-employed lending, which is helpful when every second customer is either a sole trader or in a partnership.”

Pignone is seeing similar trends at her brokerage. “We’re using a mix of the majors and the second-tier and non-conforming lenders,” she said.

What new technologies, including AI tools, are you implementing to make the broker experience faster and more streamlined at your bank?

At NAB, Adam Brown sees technology as a fundamental driver of efficiency and broker support – but not without careful guardrails.

“Technology is a game changer for banks, for efficiency, for brokers, for speed and consistency,” said Brown. “AI is probably the buzzword … but for NAB, we’re experimenting with AI where it makes sense.”

He noted that AI’s current value lies mostly in operational efficiencies, such as streamlining knowledge bases and automating repetitive tasks previously handled manually. However, he emphasised that digitisation and automation have had the biggest tangible impact so far on service delivery.

“Automation and digitisation have been the real game changers for speed. All of us are now being able to deliver that speed for customers and brokers,” he said.

Brown stressed that broker input is essential in shaping new technology. “We can’t do this on our own … it’s how we actually work with aggregators and brokers to improve the end-to-end process.”

Wendy Brown pointed out that Macquarie Bank has a long track record of investment and innovation in the broker channel to deliver the best experiences to brokers and customers. AI is presenting new opportunities to continue this history of investing in delivering these experiences.

“We’re taking a careful and prudent approach to using AI in our originations processes,” she said. “It goes without saying that we’re in a highly regulated industry and we need to make sure we’re meeting all our regulatory obligations – including our responsible lending/NCCP obligations.

“Although AI is a very powerful technology, you can’t just ask it whether to approve a home loan. Instead, we’re looking at how AI can augment specific segments of our existing processes. We think this approach will see us continuing to build on our track record of giving brokers very quick decisions – but just as importantly, confidence in our decision processes.”

Magnus explained how ANZ is leaning into AI’s strength in cybersecurity, particularly through enhancements to its Falcon fraud detection system.

“It’s an AI world; it’s a digital world. And the by-product is an increase in scams,” said Magnus. “We’ve looked at increasing our functionality through ANZ Falcon to protect customers, using behavioural metrics to identify abnormal consumer spending patterns. Here we are able to freeze payments, contact customers and protect customers from fraud.”

From a broker perspective, Magnus flagged the focus on making it easier for brokers to find the information and tools they need in one place. “We want to ensure that brokers have better line of sight around applications in the home loan pipeline and more insights into their existing portfolios so they can spend more time with their customers.

“We’ll launch a brand-new report … everything from start to finish: education, process, systems, technology, AI and data-driven insights for brokers and aggregator partners,” Magnus said.

At Westpac, AI is already delivering measurable improvements in broker workflow, according to Willsallen. “AI now reads and verifies broker-submitted documents, saving 20 minutes per file,” she said. “Think about how many files you do in a day or week – that’s a material impact.”

Westpac is also using generative AI to summarise broker notes and cover sheets, reducing delays in assessments. These efforts were recently recognised with a 2025 Appian Innovation Award.

“We’re working with key partners to develop relevant policy in a consistent type of manner,” Willsallen added.

CommBank’s approach to AI has evolved from speeding up applications to deepening broker relationships, Zaka explained, adding that the focus is now on enabling relationship managers to be more responsive and effective.

“We’re changing how we can use AI to improve the relationship-building capability of our relationship managers,” said Zaka. “I want our relationship managers to be able to respond as soon as possible – and AI helps them do that … If someone’s calling in, they need an answer. Ten minutes makes a difference.”

Brokers Pignone and Psirakis were largely complimentary about the banks’ use of tech and AI.

Pignone praised Macquarie Bank’s tech infrastructure for enabling end-to-end deals – from submission to settlement – within days. “We want to do things really well, but we want them done really quickly,” she said. “Macquarie do that really well because of the tech in the background.”

Psirakis noted that while banks are on the right track, not all AI tools are relevant for brokers’ day-to-day work. “I don’t think I’d ever be at a point where I’d be submitting AI broker notes,” he said. “But I use it to research what clients are asking for – what are first-time buyers googling?”

Do you expect to see more M&A activity in the Australian financial services sector?

Given ANZ’s acquisition of Suncorp Bank in 2024, Magnus was an obvious starting point for the final topic of the day. Magnus unequivocally sees more M&A activity in the industry pipeline.

“It’s such a costly experience to run your own business,” he said. “There is an increase in compliance and a big technology disruption happening, and we’re starting to see aggregators now take strategic partnerships in the industry to support M&A … I suspect that there’s a consolidation coming.”

He pointed to succession planning as a key driver of consolidation in the broking space, saying, “As an ageing broker network, we need to ensure that the youth are coming through to keep it alive. This is in everyone’s best interest for longevity.”

Willsallen echoed Magnus’s outlook but framed it within a broader set of macro and structural forces influencing the market.

“We’ve obviously witnessed a steady uptick in mergers and acquisition activity in the mortgage broking industry,” she said. “If we think about the dynamic landscape, there are many drivers that create that environment.” Among those drivers, she listed compliance costs, tech investment demands, demographic shifts and competitive pressures.

Zaka concurred that there has been an uptick in M&A activity in the brokerage space.