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The proportion of broker-originated mortgages continues to fall at CBA, with 68 per cent of new home loans coming from proprietary channels in 3Q25.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) grew its home loan book by $6 billion in the three months to March 2025, up from the $4.2 billion recorded in the March quarter of 2024.
However, it has reinforced its position as the major lender least reliant on the broker channel, with its latest trading update for the March quarter revealing a further decline in the proportion of home loans originating from brokers.
According to the bank’s third quarter trading update for the financial year ending June 2025 (3Q25) released on Wednesday (14 May), just 32 per cent of new CBA-branded home loan flows (excluding Bankwest and Residential Mortgage Group) came through the broker network.
This was down from the 35 per cent seen in 3Q24 and the 34 per cent recorded in the first half of FY25 (ending December 2024).
Conversely, CBA’s proprietary channels accounted for a significant 68 per cent of new home loan business during the three months to March 2025, up from 65 per cent in the corresponding period last year.
Speaking to The Adviser about the results, however, CBA’s general manager, third party banking, Baber Zaka, commented: “Mortgage brokers play an essential role in helping Australians achieve their home ownership dreams, and the third-party channel is integral to our home lending strategy.
“We are always looking to sustainably grow our broker flows and evolve our third-party service proposition by listening to the feedback we hear from our brokers.”
He outlined that the bank had recently broadened its construction loan policy and expanded rental income policy to allow the use of boarder income in home loan serviceability.
Zaka also flagged that the bank had improved its broker tiering system, invested in its sales team and introduced a national sales lead (Michael Piper) to ensure brokers have access to the tools and support they need.
“We believe these changes will help brokers expand their portfolios and grow their businesses, while helping more Australians in reaching their home ownership aspirations,” Zaka said.
“Our goal is to forge strong partnerships with brokers who share our values and objectives. We have and will continue to support the brokers by enhancing our technology, processes and workforce to make it even easier for them to do business with us.”
The update comes as CBA continues to place strategic emphasis on its direct channels and prioritise margin improvement.
Indeed, the trading update revealed that net interest income increased 1 per cent, with lending volume growth and earnings from replicating portfolio and equity hedges largely offsetting the impact of deposit competition and two fewer days in the quarter. Excluding non-recurring items, the net interest margin remained stable.
Its net profit after tax was around $2.6 billion in the quarter, up 6 per cent on the prior comparative quarter (but broadly flat on the 1H25 quarterly average).
Household deposits also rose strongly in the quarter, up $4.9 billion during the period, as did business transaction accounts, which increased by 7 per cent year on year to approximately 1.31 million.
Business lending rose by $3.7 billion in 3Q25, up 9.1 per cent on the December quarter.
During the quarter, CBA paid $3.8 billion in dividends, which it said benefited 814,000 shareholders directly and over 13 million Australians through their superannuation.
CBA CEO Matt Comyn said: “Our focus on supporting our customers, investing in our franchise to deliver superior customer experiences and executing our strategy with consistency and discipline has delivered solid results for our shareholders.
“Our balance sheet settings remain strong. We have maintained strong capital and provisioning levels, and have successfully completed our FY25 funding task during the March quarter.
“Our deliberate and long-term conservative approach to key balance sheet settings enables us to support our customers, the economy and our shareholders through a range of macroeconomic scenarios.”
The changing broker flows at the majors
The most recent financial results period revealed diverging broker trends at the four major banks.
CBA has the lowest proportion of new loans being written through the broker channel, as it continues to prioritise its proprietary channel to improve margins.
While CBA is on a different financial calendar than the other three major banks (ANZ, NAB, and Westpac), in its first half ending December 2024, CBA saw brokers originate just 34 per cent of new mortgages.
All of the other majors are seeing more than 60 per cent of the new mortgage business written by the third-party channel, according to their half-yearly results for the six months ending March 2025.
Westpac and ANZ have both seen broker business continue to grow (Westpac was up over the half to 67.5 per cent) and ANZ was unchanged at 67 per cent over the same period.
However, similar to CBA, NAB results showed that broker flows dropped in its first half (albeit to 59.6 per cent) as it also prioritises its direct lending.
Both NAB and CBA have said that while they may be prioritising flows through the direct channels, they are still committed to the broker channel.
[Related: Proprietary channel a ‘key priority’ for mortgages: NAB]
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