The 10 Biggest Banks in Australia: A home buyer's guide

If you're in the market for a home loan in Australia, you've got plenty of options.

Between banks, credit unions, and non-bank lenders, there are hundreds of institutions that write mortgages. Beyond that, most lenders offer a range of different products.

As with most industries though, the home loan market is dominated by a few major players that hold almost all outstanding mortgages.

Biggest banks in Australia

The Australian banking landscape is dominated by the 'Big Four' banks.

Nearly 75% of all mortgages in the nation - both owner occupier and investment - are provided by CommBank, Westpac, NAB or ANZ.

Those four players also hold about 74% of all Australian consumer deposits.

When we include Macquarie Bank (its home loan book is almost twice the size of its next biggest competitor, Bank of Queensland), more than four fifths of the Australian mortgage market is held by just five institutions.

This is concerning for some.

In 2023, the ACCC tried to block ANZ from acquiring Suncorp to prevent further entrenching this oligopoly. Its worry was, given the size of the major banks, they might adopt a 'live and let live' approach and refuse to compete against one another to offer lower rates.

However, this decision was overturned by the Australian Competition Tribunal in early 2024. As things stand, the Suncorp home loan book will soon be added to that of ANZ.

Based on current APRA figures, that will mean 82.5% of the mortgage market will soon be held by the 'Big Five' - CommBank, Westpac, NAB, ANZ, and Macquarie.

What is the biggest bank in Australia?

The Commonwealth Bank (CommBank) is comfortably the biggest bank in Australia.

It doesn't matter whether you measure by market capitalisation, total assets, or the size of its home loan book, CBA comes out on top.

If you know your Aussie history, this won't be surprising. CommBank was founded by the government and used to be the reserve bank of Australia before it was privatised.

Top banks in Australia for home loans

These are the ten banks in Australia with the largest home loan books, as per APRA statistics for April 2024.

Note; these numbers include each banks' subsidiaries, which are commonly significant institutions in their own right.

Take St George, Bank of Melbourne, and BankSA, for example. These are all part of the Westpac group, so home loans with any of those banks are counted as with Westpac.

Top ten banks in Australia for owner occupier home loans

Rank	Institution	Value of owner-occupied home loan book
1st	Commonwealth Bank	$368.1 billion
2nd	Westpac	$310.9 billion
3rd	NAB	$209.5 billion
4th	ANZ	$198.1 billion
5th	Macquarie Bank	$71.7 billion
6th	ING	$49.1 billion
7th	Bendigo Bank	$44.2 billion
8th	Bank of Queensland	$41.2 billion
9th	Suncorp	$37.8 billion
10th	HSBC	$21.0 billion

Top ten banks in Australia for Investment home loans

Rank	Institution	Value of investment home loan book
1st	Commonwealth Bank	$183.8 billion
2nd	Westpac	$158.6 billion
3rd	NAB	$109.7 billion
4th	ANZ	$98.4 billion
5th	Macquarie Bank	$45.1 billion
6th	Bank of Queensland	$17.9 billion
7th	Suncorp	$15.3 billion
8th	Bendigo Bank	$15.0 billion
9th	ING	$9.4 billion
10th	HSBC	$9.2 billion

Should you get a home loan through a big bank?

The ten banks listed above hold 92% of all of Australia's outstanding home loans.

And while there are hundreds of other providers out there, you might not have heard of most of them. So, it's understandable that you might gravitate towards these larger institutions.

There are definitely advantages to doing so.

Large banks benefit from economies of scale. These are cost benefits that come from having a larger operation.

For example, scale might make it easier for a bank to operate with smaller margins between returns on deposits and interest rates on credit products.

Bigger banks might also have better technology, such as banking apps that improve the customer experience.

However, you probably shouldn't limit yourself to the big players.

Smaller lenders often offer even lower rates to attract customers, and may provide more personalised services.

You may feel a bit uneasy about borrowing through a lender you're unfamiliar with, but providing it has an Australian credit license, you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

There is never one 'best home loan' product out there.

Different borrowers have different priorities. An offset account might be a non negotiable for some, while others might want to easily manage their home loan through a banking app. Others just simply want to pay the lowest rate possible.

Whatever your story, taking the time to explore the market, from the biggest banks to the smallest credit unions, might allow you to find the product most suited to your needs. Perhaps the easiest way to do so is to peruse a comparison site such as Your Mortgage.