Macquarie has laid down a more ambitious vision to take on the major banks, declaring it wants to grow lending to Australian businesses and to gather more deposits from the wealth sector, as it deploys technology built to compete in the mortgage market into the small company segment.
In a competitive warning to the major banks, BFS group head Greg Ward said: “We can see in front of us the opportunity to materially lift our lending, without having to really change our risk appetite.“Because we are such a small market participant, there is big opportunity to dramatically expand that lending base, without going down the risk curve or being the price leader. We haven’t had technology to facilitate that level of growth, but that is now coming through.
“In terms of technology and readiness, we are ready and able to significantly grow that side of the business. I just think the pace of growth will be slower than we have seen in the personal side.”In deposits, Macquarie holds $136 billion, up from $31 billion a decade ago, representing 4.9 per cent of the market. Of its 1.85 million customers, 1.4 million are depositors. Its home loan portfolio of $118 billion at the end of December was up 3 per cent compared to the end of September.
“It is a very competitive market, and there will be periods of time when we think returns will be below the levels that shareholders expect, so you should expect to see our market share and growth fluctuate over time,” Mr Perham said.