Branchless Macquarie grows its mortgage book by 9% through brokers

Mortgage broker alliances helped Macquarie Group grow its Australian mortgage portfolio by $1 billion (9%) to reach $11.8 billion for the year to March 31, the investment bank has revealed in its annual results today.

Its home loans are distributed through John Symond’s Aussie Home Loans business, AFG, Vow, Mortgage Choice and Mark Bouris’s Yellow Brick Road after it formed a mortgage distribution alliance with the franchise group in November.

This compares to just 1% growth in Westpac’s mortgage book over the six month period to March 31, also announced today.

ANZ grew its mortgage book by 2% over the same six-month time frame.

Macquarie reported a 17% rise in net profit to $851 million in the year ended March 31, driven by improved market conditions and reduced costs.

This is the first time profits have risen in three years.

The growth was assisted by the bank offering a 1.01 percentage point discount off the standard variable rate over the life of its home loans through its third-party distribution channels.

Macquarie’s banking and financial services group paid $86 million in fees and commission to mortgage originators and mortgage brokers to distribute its home loan offerings over the course of the year.

It also acquired a stake in listed non-bank lender Homeloans Limited in April last year.

Macquarie will pay shareholders a full-year dividend of $2 per share.

Chief executive Nicholas Moore said global market conditions had improved generally during the year and together with “strong cost-controls across the group leading to the improved result”.