07 May 2003 12:00am

The bank's estimate of its market share of business banking increased to 5.2 per cent at February 2003 from 4.9 per cent at August 2002 and 4.5 per cent at February 2002.

However, as with the rest of the market, growth in business lending volumes is relatively modest, up 4.7 per cent in the half year to $9.4 billion.

Chief financial officer Steve McKerihan indicated a significant proportion of the growth in business banking arises from an increased level of business from existing customers, rather than from winning new customers.

He made this point by way...