CBA increasingly reliant on brokers

In its half-year financial results yesterday, CBA noted that brokers accounted for 48 per cent of new mortgage business at 31 December 2015, up from 43 per cent a year earlier.

CBA’s portfolio was made up of 44 per cent broker-introduced home loans at December 2015, up slightly from 43 per cent a year prior.

The group recorded a marginal fall in investment loans on its portfolio. However, new business investment home loans written fell to 31 per cent at December 2015 from 36 per cent a year earlier.

The figures reflect a tighter regulatory environment, which has forced all banks to cap their investor lending growth at 10 per cent.

Regulatory pressures have also been felt on CBA’s high LVR lending, with only 16 per cent of the bank’s new mortgage flows requiring lenders mortgage insurance, down from 22 per cent a year earlier.

The major bank posted a cash profit of $4.8 billion for the six months to 31 December 2015, an increase of 4 per cent.

“Our focus on customers has continued during this period to benefit the people, businesses and communities we exist to serve,” CBA chief executive Ian Narev said.

“Our people remain the key to our ongoing success. As a result of their efforts, we ranked outright number one for retail customer satisfaction in the half, and equal first for business customer satisfaction,” Mr Narev said.

“Customer satisfaction has again led to volume growth across our businesses.”

Mr Narev noted that CBA’s operating income grew 6 per cent during this period, with all businesses contributing.

“This consistency of income, combined with our focus on long-term productivity, sustains our commitment to keep investing in our customer-focused strategy,” he said.

“We will continue to invest to ensure that our strong franchise remains competitive in the future.”

[Related: CBA mortgages underperform]