Australian Business Lending Growth Returns After Deep Freeze
According to new data released by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), after a long period of deep slumber, business credit is finally waking up, whilst the perennial third and fourth largest mortgage lenders NAB and ANZ continue to show growth in home lending.
The data released by APRA suggests that credit growth expanded by 2.1 per cent in March, with business lending growing by 0.1 per cent having contracted every month since December after a long period of corporate deleveraging.
In the market for mortgage lending, NAB began closing the gap with its larger rivals after limiting its interest rate hikes to in line with official rate increases.
Rival ANZ, which actually tightened its lending standards as part of its response to an expected spike in unemployment rate, has once again loosened its criteria in order to expand volumes.
The Big Four have all managed to grow their share of the home loan market in March, however NAB and ANZ both outpaced the dominant mortgage lenders, Westpac and CBA.
ANZ’s annualised growth for March was 16 per cent, with NAB close behind at 15 per cent.
Westpac and CBA reported 12 per cent and 10 per cent growth in mortgage lending respectively, and both lenders say they expect future growth to be in line with the banking system in 2010.
Westpac and CBA have both also continued to increase their business lending in March, based on one-month annualised trends.
The return of growth in business credit is expected to build momentum as a pipeline of large investment projects comes on stream, and is most likely to benefit market leaders NAB and ANZ.
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