March 30 (Bloomberg) -- Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the nation's second-largest bank, will increase services to business customers at almost a third of its 1,006 branches to tap a market that's growing faster than loans to individuals.

The Sydney-based bank lost a third of its market share in loans to companies, to 13 percent from 20 percent, in the past decade because of complex loan requirements and not being accessible enough to customers, Chief Executive Officer Ralph Norris, 56, said at a briefing in Sydney today.

Employees at as many as 300 of the bank's branches will be trained to deal with business customers and a new Internet service will automatically approve loans up to A$1 million.

Norris, who took charge in September, wants to boost business lending, where Commonwealth's growth has slowed to less than a quarter the rate of the division that deals with individual customers. He also aims to increase sales at branches to defend the bank's dominance in mortgages and deposits.

Industry-wide business loans rose 16.3 percent in the year ended January, compared with 12.8 percent growth in mortgage lending, according to Reserve Bank of Australia data.

Norris reaffirmed the bank's full-year earnings-per-share growth will be higher than the average of its biggest domestic competitors. ``We expect to achieve above-market EPS growth,'' he said, without providing specific guidance.

EPS Estimates

Commonwealth will boost EPS by 12 percent to A$3 in the fiscal year ending June 30, according to the median estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial. That compares with estimates of 13 percent growth for National Australia Bank Ltd., 8.4 percent for Westpac Banking Corp. and 6.9 percent for Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd.

Commonwealth's first-half profit rose 17 percent to a record A$2 billion ($1.42 billion) in the six months ended Dec. 31. The bank's stock closed 10 cents higher to A$45.50 in Sydney. It's the second-best performer among Australia's five biggest lenders the past year, rising 30 percent.

Norris forecast annual industry-wide credit growth as high as 12 percent over the next three years, with interest margins falling 10 basis points and costs rising 4 percent a year.

The bank has 30 percent of Australia's household deposits, about a fifth of mortgages and more than 9.5 million customers.

A three-year A$1.48 billion plan to cut costs and boost revenue, which ends in September, is exceeding financial targets, Norris said in February. The program will deliver more than A$900 million of net benefits in fiscal 2006, he said then.

Last month, Norris reaffirmed a forecast for at least 12 percent compound annual EPS growth in the three years to June 30.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kevin Foley in Sydney k.foley@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 30, 2006 00:32 EST