Even when we go to Commonwealth Bank – the country’s biggest bank with a $1.3 trillion balance sheet, four times larger than disruptor Macquarie’s – it’s news around the silver doughnut that steals the show.CBA’s Mike Vacy-Lyle laid down his plan to beat NAB a year ago. Now he’s taking aim at Macquarie.It is going after real estate agents – something Macquarie has dominated for years. Treasurer Jim Chalmers should be happy.
Macquarie has had a huge run recently, using its digital products to disrupt the market and win customers. It now accounts for 5.3 per cent of home loans and 4.9 per cent of retail deposits . A decade ago, that market share was negligible. Will it work? Who knows. But it is good to see a couple of Australia’s biggest companies in CBA and Macquarie go head-to-head; that’s precisely the sort of competition that Treasurer Jim Chalmers is fixated on.All of those little things that Vacy-Lyle has going on are about pinching customers or work off a competitor; be it Macquarie or one of the big four rivals like National Australia Bank or Westpac.
“Margin has been under pressure,” Vacy-Lyle said on Monday. “There’s been a lot of competition in the space.” He says CBA’s margin has been steady, while also growing its loan book faster than the system.