ASB made up for lost time with mortgage lending surge in Sept quarter

ASB accounted for 32.3% of new mortgage lending in the September quarter with nearly $1.07 billion of net new lending, but its annual lending of $1.72 billion accounted for just 13.3% of total bank new mortgage lending, according to the Reserve Bank's bank financial strength dashboard data.

As TMM has reported previously, Matt Comyn, chief executive of ASB's parent, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, had complained last year about pressure on margins, particularly in the New Zealand market and it was clear that ASB hadn't been offering competitive mortgage rates.

Clearly, that's changed markedly and its surge in new lending in the latest quarter trimmed its annual market share loss to just 0.3 percentage points – it held 21% of the market at Sept 30, down from 21.3% a year earlier.

Kiwibank has been lending above its market share for some time and it lent $611.5 million in net new mortgages in the September quarter or nearly 18.5% of total new lending, taking its market share to nearly 7.7% at Sept 30 from below 7.3% a year earlier.