These ASX-listed lenders are benefiting from rising lending volumes

The last six months have been solid for ASX-listed lenders, seeing an average gain of 37 per cent.

Interest rates were reduced to record lows as COVID-19 broke out and are set to stay low for several months to come to aid Australia’s economic recovery from COVID-19.

Last week the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed lending volumes were up substantially. The most recent statistics in November 2020, when the RBA made its latest cut showed:

A 5.6 per cent rise in home loan commitments (seasonally adjusted and monthly terms) totalling $23.96 billion
A 13.2 per cent rise in fixed term personal loans, reaching $1.76 billion
A 6.7 per cent rise on business loans for property acquisition purposes, reaching $3.9 billion

Construction loans for businesses however nearly halved falling 49.6 per cent to $1.02 billion.

The ABS credited the rise not only to low interest rates but other government schemes including stamp duty concessions and HomeBuilder.

Home loan commitments, for existing dwellings, was singled out as reaching a record high and spiralling 23.7 per cent in just 12 months.

While business construction loans fell, construction loans for residential dwellings were a different story, gaining 75 per cent since June.

The biggest winners

Out of 10 ASX lenders stocks, eight are up in six months and have all reported higher trading volumes in recent months.

Code	Company	Price	%Mth	%SixMth	MktCap
RMC	Resimac Grp Ltd	2.13	11	111	$872.6M
MOC	Mortgage Choice Ltd	1.44	14	94	$176.9M
AFG	Aust Finance Grp	2.65	8	65	$708.5M
MNY	Money3 Corporation	2.81	1	64	$559.8M
YBR	Yellow Brick Road	0.09	20	41	$29.2M
MME	Moneyme Limited	1.47	4	28	$252.0M
EPY	Earlypay Ltd	0.375	0	21	$85.7M
PLT	Plenti Group Limited	1.18	11	-29	$198.5M
WZR	Wisr Ltd	0.18	-13	-19	$202.8M

On a six-month basis, home loan lenders have done better than personal lenders.

The top two stocks are both in the home loans industry, in lender Resimac (ASX:RMC) and broker Mortgage Choice (ASX:MOC) which are up 111 per cent and 94 per cent respectively.

The best performing personal lender is Money3 (ASX:MNY) which is up 64 per cent.

Curiously the ASX’s newest lender, fintech personal lender Plenti Group (ASX:PLT), is one of the worst-performing stocks, losing nearly 30 per cent since listing. And Plento is Wisr (ASX:WZR) which is down 36 per cent.

Both ASX lenders have dropped despite reporting solid lending volumes in the last week.

On the other hand, MoneyMe (ASX:MME) is sitting on a 28 per cent gain in six months.