Figures recently released by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) showed that National Australia Bank Ltd's (NAB) share in the housing market still lags behind its three major competitors notwithstanding the purported success of its retail banking campaign started this year.

Data from the prudential regulator showed that NAB's share of residential mortgages in April was only 14.3 percent, which was more than a percentage point behind its closest rival, the Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), with its 15.6 percent market share.

The new figures also showed that Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) continues to command the biggest share of the country's mortgage loans by cornering 30 percent of the market while Westpac secured the second spot with 27.5 percent.

APRA said that NAB revised its submitted lending data and its previous data showed that the Melbourne-based bank's market share reached up to 14.7 percent from December to March, yet the numbers still prompted doubts over NAB's successful bid to boost volume growth.

Analysts have expressed doubts that the campaign was a true success considering that volume growth attained in February has yet to be converted into positive cash earnings for NAB's personal banking division, which declined by 22.3 percent to $317 million for the first half of fiscal 2010.

NAB chief executive Cameron Clyne revealed last April that their banking campaign produced volume growths that were beyond their projections though cuts on banking fees and lower interest rates on loans appeared to have compromised their cash revenues.

Subsequently, he informed analysts in May that NAB would soon drop its policy of giving up fee revenues and margins as he added that despite the drop in cash earnings, the bank has maintained its hold to about 19.2 percent market share as the biggest lender outside of the financial sector.

The Commonwealth Bank is not far behind though, securing 19.1 percent of non-financial business loans.

Mr Clyne also said that NAB's 2010 second half earning would be determined by the expected growth of its business banking franchise.

According to APRA, NAB's share of total deposit grew by 0.13 percent while its major competitors each suffered declines on that area. Westpac shares fell by 0.27 while CBA lost 0.12 percent, with ANZ shares sliding to 0.02 percent.