Wikramanayake, appearing alongside King on Wednesday’s panel, said the bank was being careful to lend to quality borrowers, and it was not chasing home loan growth for its own sake.

“We also have an obligation to other stakeholders, our funders for example, the savers who give us their deposits to fund this, and so we have an obligation to make sure we are doing good quality credit lending for them,” she said.

Loading

When she said Macquarie was “tiny bank” in Australian mortgages, with a share of less than 5 per cent of the market, King jokingly interjected: “Come on, you’re a big one.”

The comments were part of a wide-ranging panel discussion in which the two bank bosses touched on topics ranging from geopolitics, to artificial intelligence, to investments in renewable energy and the climate transition.

Macquarie is a major financier of renewable energy, and also a significant player in fossil fuel energy markets, and this has meant the bank has benefited from volatility in energy markets in the past.

Last month, the US state of Kansas filed a lawsuit against Macquarie Energy LLC, alleging natural gas market manipulation during a severe 2021 winter storm. According to the lawsuit, on February 16, 2021, Macquarie bought gas for next-day delivery “at the single highest price ever paid for Southern Star natural gas”, which the Kansas attorney-general’s office said had the effect of artificially increasing gas prices by “hundreds of dollars” per million British thermal units. A spokeswoman said: “Macquarie Group does not comment on active litigation.”

The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.