Big five fight
Australia’s banks head into 2026 with Macquarie in the freshly minted ‘big five’ and the majors battling tech revamps, restructures, talent raids and regulation.
Amid restructures, major tech transformation, regulatory tightening and talent poaching, Australia’s big banks enter 2026 facing one of the most competitive landscapes in years.
Nowhere is that more evident than in the arrival of Macquarie as part of the newly minted ‘big five’, a grouping implicitly recognised by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority late last year, as the financial group’s years-long siege on the majors continues to draw blood.
The latest figures show Macquarie’s pace of growth increased again in the three months to November (as dissected in our chart section below) as retail boss Greg Ward ups the ante against the incumbents.
While he is said to be content running the hyper-successful retail bank, succession chatter is likely to persist after Shemara Wikramanayake told Capital Brief she was building a deep bench below her for an orderly transition when the time inevitably comes to step away.
