The institutional banking business at Commonwealth Bank is making one of its periodic pushes to lift its market share, an effort that on this occasion may enjoy the support of the bank's CEO.At yesterday's investor briefing, to review CBA's profit for the year to June 2012, CEO Ian Narev emphasised the opportunity ahead of the bank as global banks scale back their investment in Australia.One sell-side analyst asked why the bank was pursuing a strategy that was "balance sheet led" and "increas[ing] the risk profile". Narev countered, saying that the growth in lending assets (of 15 per cent over the half year) "has not been accompanied by any change at all in risk appetite."Narev pointed to the strategy of Royal Bank of Canada as a model - not that he used that word - for CBA.Royal Bank, he said, was "the other big bank really having [a] significant institutional presence. "We have a look at the fact … that a lot of the global banks have had to reduce presence in Australia because Australia's non-core."That's leaving good people … looking for somewhere Australian to work and we've got access to a good customer base; we've got great technology to drive transactional banking. "So what we're focusing on is not changing risk appetite, to grow gangbusters, it's actually slowly and deliberately building capability to get to a market position which we think is an appropriate one given the scale of the franchise. "We're a $90 billion company. We're in the top 10 banks in the world by market cap, which is a function of the environment. "But the fact that we're so under-weight in institutional banking in our domestic market which we know well, where I know the CEOs, where Ian [Saines] knows the CEOs - it doesn't make sense. "So, as we're looking for a way to grow, it's obviously a good place to look."Ian Saines, head of institutional banking, said that "It's not a lending-led strategy. In fact, of the four I'd say we're the least lending-led… If the inference is we're growing volume by reducing margin, that's not the case."David Craig, the bank's chief financial officer, said: "We look at every loan we make on a risk-adjusted, capital-weighted basis and we're making very good money in that area. We absolutely take into account the regulatory and economic capital associated with those loans, and I can assure you that they're good profitable loans."Saines said CBA attracted 38 new transaction banking clients to the institutional bank over the last year, an increase he attributed in part to the overhaul of the bank's core systems.