Over the three months to 31 December 2021, the bank's home lending grew by 2.6 per cent, small business lending grew by 3.4 per cent and deposits grew by $18 billion. The bank's results were also buoyed by a credit impairment write-back of $35 million and a decrease in the number of borrowers making 90+ day overdue payments, reflecting continued improvement in the economic landscape. NAB mimicked its peers in flagging the fiercely competitive home loan environment which attributed to its net interest margin falling 5 basis points to 1.64 per cent in the quarter, while the closely watched measure of spare cash, the common equity tier 1 ratio was 12.4 per cent for the December quarter, compared with 13 per cent the quarter prior. Its peers are trading mixed, riding on the coat tails are Westpac Banking Corporation (ASX:WBC) up 0.8 per cent at $22.56 and ANZ Banking Group (ASX:ANZ) adding 0.6 per cent higher at $27.57.