Macquarie secures top spot for broker usage in residential lending

The latest Broker Pulse: Residential Lending report by Agile Market Intelligence reveals insights from our monthly survey of Australia’s mortgage brokers and highlights the key lender movements across usage, service, loan processing times and broker experience.

Broker flows

Macquarie, ANZ and CBA dominate broker usage
Macquarie overtakes ANZ to the top position with 49% of brokers submitting deals through the lender. ANZ places second with a 45% market share, losing 10% over the last month. This demonstrates its enduring appeal of Macquarie to deliver reliable service and competitive turnaround times. CBA joins them at third with 34% broker usage, ahead of Westpac and NAB.

Among the non-majors, ING (24%) and Bankwest (21%) consistently attracted strong broker interest, with their consistent service levels resonating with intermediaries. Pepper Money (10%) led the charge among non-bank lenders, as they provide a key option for brokers seeking flexible solutions for niche borrower needs.

Decision drivers

Client fit and product pricing lead lender selection
Client circumstances, together with product pricing remained the top factors influencing broker recommendations across all lender categories. For major banks, 80% of brokers cited client circumstances as a core driver. Product pricing (44%) and client preference (27%) follow, both dropping a few percentage points from last month.

For non-major ADIs product pricing is the leading factor (74%), with a solid lead over client circumstances (59%). For non-banks, ‘client circumstances’ is the leading decision driver with a resounding 86%. Turnaround times continue to be a reason for choosing lenders in the case of majors and non-majors, less so for non-banks. This reflects the growing value brokers place on streamlined processes, particularly in a tight-lending and high-volume environment.

Turnaround times

Macquarie sets the pace, as small ADIs catch up and non-ADIs gradually improve turnaround times

Large ADIs
Macquarie Bank once again led the major banks with the fastest average turnaround at a speedy 1.6 business days, followed by Bankwest (3.0 days). NAB catches up at 3.3 days, joined by Westpac with 3.4 days, and AMP Bank’s slightly longer 3.6 days. 

Small ADIs
In the small ADIs category, UBank topped the list at 1.7 days, making it a standout for brokers needing swift approvals. MyState and P&N delivered impressive performance in around 2.8 and 3.4 days, respectively securing their top spots. Newcastle Permanent saw a slow down as reports show 10.9 turnaround times for this month, together with People’s Choice at 13.4. Heritage Bank managed to reduce their turnaround time by 4 days, now sitting at 11.0 days. HSBC and Great Southern Bank saw some decrease in turnaround times.

Non-ADIs
Among non-banks, Advantedge enjoyed a speedy month with 2.6 days reported turnaround time, moving it to the top. AFG Home Loans and Bluestone Home Loans followed suit at an average of 3.2 business days, and 3.7 days also improving from their previous month’s performance. Connective Home Loans, Resimac, and La Trobe also saw improvement in their turnaround times. 

Broker experience

Macquarie, Beyond Bank, and AFG Home Loans win broker trust

Large ADIs
Macquarie Bank continues to provide the best broker experience with a three-month average broker experience rating of 96%. Bankwest follows behind closely at 93% broker experience rating respectively. Across the board, major and non-major banks have seen increased broker satisfaction this month.

Small ADIs
Beyond Bank is now leading small ADIs in broker experience, with a 3-month average of 95% satisfaction, even higher than 93% last month. P&N Bank (93%) and Bank Australia (91%) also earned high broker approval, improving from their previous month’s. Heritage Bank and People’s Choice are experiencing ratings at 31% and 45%, respectively, even lower than either’s 3-month average in the last period.

Non-ADIs
AFG Home Loans rises to the top spot in the non-bank space with 84% satisfaction. Liberty Financial, RedZed and Advantedge followed closely for overall satisfaction at 83%. Pepper Money joins them in the top 5 with 82% satisfaction. Non-ADIs saw a decline across the board in broker experience satisfaction, despite the general decrease in turnaround times. 

Broker insights on BDMs and credit teams

Macquarie and Bankwest lead in both BDM and credit assessment performance, as Beyond Bank and P&N score 100%

Macquarie ranked top for BDM experience scoring 97% satisfaction. Bankwest’s BDM performance was also outstanding at 95%. For less commonly used ADIs, Beyond Bank and P&N Bank received scores of 100% for BDM satisfaction, joining them is RedZed and Advantedge from the non-bank space. Heritage Bank again received high dissatisfaction scores, adding to their list of areas for improvement.

Macquarie retained the top spot for credit assessor performance with a 94% satisfaction score, Bankwest performed well taking the second place at 89%. For smaller banks, P&N Bank, Bank Australia and Beyond Bank all enjoyed 100% satisfaction scores this month. Dissatisfaction for credit assessors in Heritage Bank decreased to 33%. In the non-ADI segment, Resimac impresses with 100% credit assessor performance.

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About the report

The August 2025 edition of Broker Pulse is based on responses from 286 residential brokers, collected between the 1st and 16th September 2025. Brokers were asked to share their experiences with the lenders they worked with throughout July, rating them across turnaround time, credit assessment, BDM interactions, and the overall broker journey. 

About Broker Pulse: Residential Lending

Broker Pulse is a monthly survey of residential mortgage lenders conducted by Agile Market Intelligence. It is a community-driven knowledge base of lender performance that offers transparency to the market by surfacing these collective insights from the broker community. This empowers brokers to make informed decisions and enables lenders to benchmark and improve performance.

Participating brokers receive access to a bird’s-eye view of the lender benchmarking data each month. To sign up or for more information visit https://www.brokerpulse.com.au/‍