CBA now bigger business lender than NAB

Commonwealth Bank of Australia Ltd (CBA) has overtaken National Australia Bank Ltd
(NAB) as the country's biggest business lender, as its market leading satisfaction
levels pay dividends.
But Melbourne-based NAB is no longer the sector's laggard for business customer
satisfaction and is aiming to take back the top spot. NAB also holds the crown as
the biggest lender to non-financial companies.
CBA was the biggest lender overall to both financials and non-financial businesses
in July with a 19.6 per cent share, followed by NAB's 19.1 per cent, according to
figures released by the prudential regulator on Tuesday.
ANZ Banking Group had the third largest business loan book with 17 per cent share
followed by Westpac's 16.2 per cent share, figures released by the Australian
Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) showed.
Since June, CBA and NAB have jostled for the top position as Australia's biggest
lender to non-financial businesses, with CBA's 19.4 per cent market share in June
eclipsing long-time leader NAB's 19.2 per cent.
But the July statistics showed NAB jumped ahead, growing its share to 19.3 per cent
as CBA's share declined to 18.8.
Together the big four banks and three regional lenders have a 78 per cent share of
the business loan market, and the major banks have been fighting hard to win new
business as they face investor pressure over future earnings. In May, NAB said it
would depend upon business banking growth to prop up earnings in 2010 and 2011, but
earlier this month chief executive Cameron Clyne said the expected growth spurt
would probably be delayed until 2011.
Campaigns to win market share resulted in Westpac now ranking alongside CBA as the
leading business bank for customer satisfaction, according to DBM Consultants'
national survey of 7,126 businesses in July.
DBM surveyed decision makers in businesses of all sizes and found satisfaction
levels with three of the big four banks improved from June.
CBA maintained a clear lead over its rivals for customer satisfaction among large
businesses, defined by DBM as those businesses with an annual turnover of more than
$50 million.
NAB edged ahead of ANZ Banking Group to become the third most popular business bank,
winning favour over the last two months with more micro businesses and small to
medium enterprises (SMEs), DBM's managing director Dhruba Gupta said.
"NAB has traditionally held the largest proportions of business lending and deposit
dollars among the big four banks, but satisfaction of its customers has consistently
rated below the leaders," he said in a statement on Tuesday.
"Over the last several months its micro and small business customers have shown
improving overall satisfaction with NAB."
Micro businesses have annual turnovers of less than $1 million and account for
almost 90 per cent of all Australian businesses, DBM said.
SMEs have annual turnovers of between $1 million and $5 million.



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