Business lending may be in decline but one lender to business is keen to highlight that its market share is on the rise. National Australia Bank, in an email from corporate affairs yesterday, pointed out that the bank's business lending market share in June was 20.8 per cent, rising in July to 21 per cent.Monthly banking data published yesterday by APRA shows NAB's market share of business loans (including bill acceptances) at only slightly lower: 20.5 per cent in June and 20.6 per cent in July.The difference, NAB said, was the treatment of loans made by NAB under its "business market loan" or BML lending product. This loan "enables customers to more flexibility manage interest rates on their lending", according to the bank.APRA and also the RBA, in the monthly financial aggregates, said business lending by banks declined by 0.4 per cent in July over June. Growth in business lending of 0.5 per cent in May now looks an aberration in what remains a down cycle in business credit that dates from the height of the financial crisis in late 2008.A few smaller banks are showing signs of growth in lending to business at the moment, among them Macquarie Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui and Tokyo-Mitsubishi.Monthly growth rates of 0.4 per cent in June and 0.5 per cent in July point to a slowdown in the rate of growth in housing lending, down from the 12-month rate of eight per cent or better reported for the last year.The overall rate of credit growth was 0.1 per cent for the month of July and 2.8 per cent in the year to July 2010.