NAB steps up campaign to generate more loans

The bank believes its campaign of offering to pay the exit fees for mortgage customers who desert its competitors is key in outpacing the market.

NATIONAL Australia Bank is to extend its bold-faced promotional campaign to poach home loan customers as the renegade lender continues its aggressive grab for market share.

NAB will persist with its offer to pay the exit fees for mortgage customers who desert its biggest rivals, claiming the campaign has helped the group rapidly outpace the market.

The move comes amid early signs that ANZ - which has avoided the pricing and promotional war playing out between the other major banks - is rapidly losing momentum in the home loan market.

Statistics published on Friday by the banking regulator reveal that ANZ grew its mortgage book at a slower rate last month than the market laggards of the past year, Westpac and the Commonwealth Bank.

NAB, which rolled out the exit-fee offer as part of its prominent "break-up" campaign launched on Valentine's Day, continues to claw in many more home loan customers than the other major banks.

Amid concerns from some analysts that NAB is undermining profit margins and the quality of its book by chasing the most cost-conscious customers, the bank is extending the offer until the end of June.

View the full story in The Herald Sun.