Yahoo Finance Macquarie Bank joins the ranks to play with the Big Four
When someone says ‘the Big Four banks’ it is natural to assume they mean Commonwealth Bank (CBA), National Australia Bank (NAB), ANZ and Westpac. But that has now changed.
In terms of market capitalisation, Macquarie bank has shot up this year to be the second-largest of them all.
The market cap of a company is determined by multiplying the share price by the number of outstanding shares.
Also read: Australia’s best bank isn’t even Australian
Commonwealth Bank still leads the pack with a market cap of more than $174 billion, followed by Macquarie, NAB, Westpac and ANZ.
The market cap of the five banks are now:
CBA: $174 billion
Macquarie: $164 billion
NAB: $96.33 billion
Westpac: $79.68 billion
ANZ: $78.99 billion
Despite having a massive market cap, Macquarie is still the smallest banking business compared to the other four.
Last financial year, Macquarie’s profits were around $3 billion, which is around half of what ANZ made.
Macquarie has a number of different businesses, focusing mainly on asset management rather than retail banking.
This, among other reasons, is why Macquarie has boomed above the others in terms of its market cap.
However, the bank does have a retail arm offering home and car loans, and savings and transaction accounts.
Macquarie has around 1 million Aussie retail customers, which is significantly lower than CBA (17 million), Westpac (13 million), NAB (8 million) and ANZ (8 million).
So, while Macquarie has joined the ranks in terms of how much the market believes it is worth, it still has a way to go before it is one of the most popular banks among Australians.
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