National Australia Bank is seeing a stronger-than-expected recovery amongst its business customers after last year's pandemic-fuelled recession.
CEO Ross McEwan on Friday told a House of Representatives economics committee that as as Australia's biggest business bank, NAB is seeing clear and widespread signs of businesses getting going again.
"Our bankers are approving more loans to businesses than before the pandemic," Mr McEwan said in his opening statement at a hearing in Canberra.
"New and increased lending to small- and medium-sized businesses is up.
"NAB's agricultural equipment finance sales, for example, have grown 130 per cent in the last 12 months."
His comments confirm recent economic data showing Australia's gross domestic product expanded by more than three per cent in two straight quarters and that business conditions and business confidence remain well above average.
NAB's experience is also in line with its two bigger rivals - Commonwealth bank and Westpac - which on Thursday said most customers who had deferred loans during last year's recession had restarted repayments.
Mr McEwan said there were still some business sectors displaying an uneven recovery, such as the travel sector and cafes and restaurants in CBD areas.
But these were a small proportion of the bank's total customer base.
On the other hand, there had been a resurgence in areas like agriculture, with purchases of equipment such as tractors and irrigation equipment more than doubling.
Mr McEwan said last year NAB had paused 130,000 loans but currently, more than 98 per cent of those customers are no longer on deferral.
Of these, about 95 per cent had resumed repayments while the remainder were being provided other assistance.
