Macquarie Bank has the wealthiest customers
New financial data from Roy Morgan’s Wealth Report shows that among the larger banks, Macquarie has the wealthiest customers. Macquarie customer net wealth per capita is a market leading $943,000 in March 2024.
Macquarie customers have higher incomes than customers of other large banks, and they are also the most likely to own or to be paying off homes, the main source of Australians’ wealth.
In second place is St George with net wealth per capita of $662,000. St George’s customers are centred in Sydney where housing prices are the highest in the country contributing to that city having greater per capita wealth than elsewhere in Australia.
In third please is Westpac, with net wealth per capita of $646,000, the highest of the top four banks. Westpac customers are more likely to own property, a key source of wealth, than customers of the other top four banks. They are also older and more likely to be Baby Boomers, giving them more time to have accumulated wealth.
Bank of Queensland, the fourth placed bank, has net wealth per capita of $614,000. Bank of Queensland has a strong presence in Brisbane, which has recently overtaken Melbourne as the state capital with the second highest dwelling prices.
ING, the only exclusively digital bank among the larger banks, has net wealth per capita of $503,000. ING customers have higher personal incomes than any of the larger banks except Macquarie, but they also have a younger age profile, being disproportionately Gen X and Gen Y. Being young, they have had less opportunity to acquire wealth.
In March 2024 CBA had the lowest net wealth per capita of the banks reported ($474,000). Their customers are more likely to be Gen Z than customers of the other large banks. Being younger, they have not had the same opportunity to accumulate wealth as customers of other large banks.
The latest data covers the 12 months to March 2024. Over this period net wealth per capita among all Australians aged 14+ stood at $503,000. Net wealth per capita is often below average among customers of the smaller regional banks and credit unions.
Customer average per capita net wealth: March 2024
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source Australia, Apr. 2023 – Mar. 2024, n = 64,597. Base: Australians aged 14+. *The eleven banks reported have a minimum sample size of at least 1,450 for the period reported.
Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine commented:
“Although overall net wealth per capita in Australia is $503,000, the level of wealth varies greatly between the customers of the larger banks, ranging from overall net wealth per capita of $943,000 among Macquarie customers to $474,000 among customers of CBA.
“These wide variations in overall net wealth per capita across the larger banks has a lot to do with real estate prices in Sydney, which are higher than anywhere else in Australia. The two banks with the greatest proportion of customers living in Sydney are the two banks with the wealthiest customers – Macquarie and St George. While 20.6% of Australians live in Sydney, 29.4% of Macquarie customers live in Sydney and 52.6% of St George customers do.
“Another factor that helps explain the difference in overall net wealth per capita between the banks is the banks’ generation profile – the proportion that fall into the Interwar, Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y and Gen Z generations. As net wealth per capita is highest among Baby Boomers ($582,000), it follows that banks that have customer bases skewed to Baby Boomers, such as Macquarie, St George, and Westpac, tend to have higher net wealth.
“Understanding these differences between locations and generations in net wealth levels across the larger banks presents valuable insights into how and why wealth is distributed in Australia as it is.
“Further detailed analysis of locational and generational differences and much more can be found in the newly released Roy Morgan Wealth Report June 2024.”
Visit the Roy Morgan Online Store to purchase the latest Roy Morgan Wealth Report (June 2024). This latest wealth data comes from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey, derived from in-depth interviews with over 60,000 Australians each year.
For comments or more information about Roy Morgan’s banking satisfaction data please contact:
Roy Morgan Enquiries
Office: +61 (3) 9224 5309
askroymorgan@roymorgan.com
Margin of Error
The margin of error to be allowed for in any estimate depends mainly on the number of interviews on which it is based. Margin of error gives indications of the likely range within which estimates would be 95% likely to fall, expressed as the number of percentage points above or below the actual estimate. Allowance for design effects (such as stratification and weighting) should be made as appropriate.
| Sample Size | Percentage Estimate |
| 40% – 60% | 25% or 75% | 10% or 90% | 5% or 95% | |
| 1,000 | ±3.0 | ±2.7 | ±1.9 | ±1.3 |
| 5,000 | ±1.4 | ±1.2 | ±0.8 | ±0.6 |
| 7,500 | ±1.1 | ±1.0 | ±0.7 | ±0.5 |
| 10,000 | ±1.0 | ±0.9 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 |
| 20,000 | ±0.7 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 |
| 50,000 | ±0.4 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 | ±0.2 |
