NAB leads asset growth in 2010
National Australia Bank reported above-system growth in business loans and home loans across 2010, the only one of the four major banks to do so, monthly data from APRA shows.APRA put NAB's growth in home loans at 11.3 per cent in the year to December 2010, compared with growth of 8.1 per cent for all banks and growth of less than eight per cent for providers of housing credit.Growth in business loans at NAB was 12. 5 per cent, a fast pace of growth given there was barely any increase in credit provided by banks over 2010 and business credit overall declined over the year (see the following article on financial aggregates).Bank of Queensland, which has around a tenth of the assets of NAB, is the only other bank to record a fast pace of growth in loans across its residential and business book.Bendigo and Adelaide Bank is also steadily growing its home loan and business loan portfolios in a balanced way, though not at the speedier pace of growth of NAB and BOQ.On the business lending side, two of the other big banks reported declines over 2010. ANZ said business lending fell 13 per cent over the year, while Commonwealth Bank reported a much more modest fall, of one per cent.These trends remain evident in APRA banking data over a shorter time frame. ANZ's business loan book fell 3.1 per cent in the month of December, even faster than the decline of 2.7 per cent for Suncorp Bank, which has most of its commercial loans in run-off.NAB was the leader in home loan growth the over one-month and three-month periods as well.Commonwealth Bank and Westpac, the two dominant providers of residential loans, both allowed their market share to peak in April 2010, at 28.6 per cent and 26.8 per cent, respectively. CBA gave up 40 basis points in market share over the following eight months, while Westpac gave up 25 basis points.