NAB status as Australia’s number-one business bank also intact
“In the past two years, proprietary drawdowns have increased by 46 percentage points,” beamed NAB chief executive Andrew Irvine (pictured) following the banking giant’s full-year results on Thursday.
In an address to shareholders, he went at lengths to underscore the positives of NAB’s annual numbers, even if the results were a mixed bag, all in all.
While statutory profits fell by 2.9%, home lending increased 5.2% in the year to $364 billion, representing 0.9-times system growth (in other words, slightly below the growth of the wider mortgage market).
True, NAB continues to drag its heels slightly, but its financial year was one of robust improvement, given system growth was just 0.6-times in 2024.
It also shows that NAB is growing its mortgage book at a faster clip than Westpac, which reported 0.8-times system growth (excluding the RAMS portfolio it is currently disposing of) earlier this week.
Taking these results at face value, Irvine’s three-pillar growth strategy of “business banking, deposits and proprietary home lending” appears to be working in NAB’s favour.
Brokers still dominate at NAB
While the mortgage broking industry may view Irvine’s comments as worrying, the fact remains that broker-introduced loans continue to dominate NAB’s balance sheet.
Sure, in-house loans generated 41.4% of new mortgage flows in the six months to September 2025, up from 39.9% in the previous year’s comparable period, while new business generated by brokers dipped from 60.1% to 58.6% over the same period.
But broker-introduced loans comprised 54% of NAB’s mortgage book as of September 2025, which is in fact an increase from 52.8% in the previous year.
Read more: NAB's Adam Brown: Backing brokers, supporting customers
There could be many factors influencing this – loans written years ago, repayments, refinances and discharges all affect this total.
Either way, it appears that brokers are still driving more balance sheet growth for the time being, although this could change as Irvine’s three-pillar growth strategy matures.
NAB also underscored its commitment to “seamless customer and broker experiences supported by simplification of processes, policies and systems”.
Business lending NAB’s golden goose
NAB’s status as Australia’s largest business bank appears to be safe.
Lending momentum outpaced system growth, with Australian business lending tracking at 1.3-times system in the second half of the year.
While asset quality in the business portfolio saw some deterioration earlier in the year – including impairments in agri and commercial property – non-performing loan trends stabilised.
Balances in the business and private banking (B&PB) segment rose 7.3% year on year, with gains across key SME sectors such as trade, manufacturing, construction, and transport.
NAB continued to hold the largest share of Australia’s business lending market at 21.7%, while SME lending share increased from 27.7% to 28%.
NAB highlighted its strategy of “more bankers in more places”, with over 6,000 customer roles, around 150 business centres and 440 branches with small business bankers at the end of the financial year.
NAB stated that around 70% of business lending sales come through proprietary channels, implying a 30% share from brokers, reflecting broader market trends.
