National Australia Bank's plan of keeping its standard variable rate lower has earned it a bigger share of the mortgage market.
The number of mortgages written in the past four months by Australia's fourth-largest bank has climbed at the fastest pace in at least five years.

NAB utilized an ambitious strategy in 2010 to hold its standard variable rate, now 7.24 per cent, significantly below the levels of other big players.

Its mortgage book, worth $144.39 billion, is the second smallest of the top four institutions, ahead of ANZ.
NAB, however, has registered one of the fastest growth rates of the major players.

Analysis of APRA data accomplished by The Australian indicates that during May, the most recent data available, NAB lifted its mortgage market share by six basis points at the expense of its competitors CBA and Westpac. CBA gave off four basis points, while Westpac lost two basis points.

During the past three months, NAB's home loans expanded by 14 basis points while CBA's book was reduced by nine basis points. NAB outperformed its two larger rivals in the total of mortgages written during May and over the preceding quarter. Its volume of mortgages climbed 1.3 per cent in May and 3.5 per cent over the quarter.

The bank is understood to have written more mortgages in June than May, although the data is yet to be released.

The fast growth was the outcome of the bank having the lowest standard variable rate in the market for the past year, according to NAB group executive of personal banking Lisa Gray.

"We started 12 months ago to ensure that our customers received a fair exchange of value," Ms Gray said.

"For the last four months we outgrew financial system in home lending. It's the first time we've had four consecutive months of growth above system since the middle of 2005."