Online bank to take on Big Four

Online Bank ING Direct plans to draw on its billion dollar global savings pool to compete head on with the Big Four for a larger slice of the mortgage market.

Although the majors still have around 90% of the market, hot deposit competition is expected to trigger some out-of-cycle mortgage rate rises as lenders pass on costs and may enable major bank rivals to gain a foothold in the market, reported the AFR.

ING chief executive said ING had the capacity to write more than $11 billion of mortgages a year - up from the $7.3 billion gross it posted last year.

Saying that he had given the leader of ING's mortgage business a 70% growth target this year, Koch added the lender was looking at "a couple of alternative options" to fund growth.

"We are already competing with major banks and want to go further," he said.

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