Four June superstars: BOQ, BankWest, Westpac and CBA

While many lenders enjoyed a busy month during June not all lenders fared as well from the superannuation-induced surge in demand.

Data from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority shows that a number of lenders recorded growth rates for the month, in particular in housing, that were well above the average.

Interestingly, all banks, in aggregate, recorded growth rates that (based on APRA data) were well above the system-wide increase in housing lending for June.

This could serve as a reminder of the perils of reading too much into monthly APRA data on housing lending. And the APRA housing data for June is somewhat muddled by a major reclassification by Citi.

Leaving Citi out of the analysis the all-bank growth in housing lending for June 2007 was 1.9 per cent, compared with the RBA estimate of a 1.5 per cent increase for all housing lenders.

One interpretation of this is that non-bank lenders - such as GE Money and Challenger, and building societies and credit unions - missed out on the credit surge.

This view could be reinforced by the identity of some of the lenders that reported very strong lending growth in June.

The APRA data shows that among the major banks Westpac recorded growth of 2.6 per cent in June; CBA was also above average at 2.2 per cent; NAB equalled the average growth rate at 1.9 per cent while ANZ reported below average growth of 1.8 per cent.

The star performers in June were two regional banks: Bank of Queensland, which reported the highest rate of growth of all banks at 3.3 per cent and BankWest at 3.0 per cent.