(22 January 2007 – Australia) Commonwealth Bank’s margin lending book has grown by A$1.2 billion over the past six months, giving the bank a book worth more than A$7 billion, the bank said.CommSec general manager Matt Comyn said the rapid growth of the bank’s CommSec and Colonial margin lending products could be attributed to record share market returns and a growing number of people interested in margin loans.
“One of the keys to our success is the convenience for our customers to transact through their margin loan online through the CommSec platform,” he said.
He said the CommSec margin book alone was growing at more than 50 percent a year, outstripping the 39 percent growth of the overall margin lending market.
The bank said financial planners continued to recommend margin loans to their clients as part of their wealth creation strategies.