It’s the conundrum facing every investor in Macquarie Group and every follower of Macquarie Bank.

Is Macquarie Bank set for superstardom? Or will Macquarie’s material advance in the Australian banking industry over recent years prove a period of disruption that will be squandered, and will its market share peak?

For now “growth in the loan portfolio, deposits and platform volumes” is the declared outlook. But for how long?

The medium-term outlook, group CEO Shemara Wikramanayake said is that “Macquarie remains well-positioned to deliver superior performance in the medium term with its diverse business mix across annuity-style (including banking) and markets-facing businesses.”

So continuing to steadily chip away at growth in its market share is on the horizon.

Macquarie’s retail banking and financial services business BFS held deposits of $A153.1 billion at September 2024, with a loan portfolio of $A150.4 billion and “funds on platform” of $A152.4 billion.

The bank’s home loan portfolio of $129.9 billion, was growth of nine per cent, or 18 per cent annualised, on March 2024, representing approximately 5.6 per cent of the Australian mortgage market.

Deposits were up seven per cent over six months to $158.3 billion as at September 2024. This represents 5.3 per cent of the market.

With margin pressure, operating income of the B&FS division was up only one per cent over a year. But the net profit for B&FS was up two per cent over the prior corresponding period and up eight per cent over the most recent half, to $650 million.

Macquarie now has 1.9 million customers, many of them the cream of the crop.