Westpac discounts home loans

Westpac Banking Corporation (WBC) is offering bigger discounts on home loans to win back market share as figures show it lags its rivals on new customers, The Australian Financial Review reports.

According to the newspaper, a UBS analysis shows the lender is winning a smaller share of new loans relative to its size compared with the three other big four banks.

Westpac is offering discounts of as much as 0.9 percentage points to new customers, from a standard variable home loan rate of 5.98%, compared with its rivals' offerings of 5.88% to 5.9%.

The UBS report found Westpac is writing 16% of its mortgage book in new loans, compared with 25% for Australia and New Zealand Banking Group and 21% for the National Australia Bank (NAB) and Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA).