Our biggest banks are known for being very similar beasts that frequently move as a pack: it’s one reason they’re so often described as a collective, the Big Four.

Even so, it’s still striking just how alike the major banks have sounded lately when talking up their strategies for flogging home loans to the Australian public.

Last week, ANZ Bank chief executive Nuno Matos became the last major bank boss to indicate his bank wants to wrestle back some of the market share that has been taken by mortgage brokers, laying out plans to write more loans through its own “proprietary” channels.

The big four have all announced plans to have their own bankers, as opposed to mortgage brokers, write more home loans.Credit: Ryan Stuart

That’s bank-speak for having ANZ bankers arrange the loans, or having customers apply for mortgages directly through the bank’s website or app, instead of via mortgage brokers.

Matos, who is making clear he wants to push through sweeping changes at ANZ, vowed to bulk up the bank’s mortgage sales force, increasing the number of lenders in ANZ branches by 50 per cent, as part of a wider plan to boost profits.

Other newish bank bosses at National Australia Bank and Westpac have flagged similar plans, while CBA has long written a higher share of loans through its own bankers. Despite all the recent job-shedding in banking, one area appears to be avoiding the axe: bankers who can help their employers write more mortgages.

Now, hiring more bankers to sell more loans may not sound like an earth-shattering strategy. But this contest between banks and mortgage brokers is a critical battleground in the banking industry, which is being watched........

© The Sydney Morning Herald