ANZ and Westpac's US activity dominates first days of 2011
With the first full week of the new year a quiet one in the domestic market, the most notable activity over the holiday period from Australian borrowers came in the US, from two of Australia's big four banks. ANZ and Westpac Banking Corporation (Westpac) both announced buyback offers for US dollar, government-guaranteed benchmark bond lines with the former also pricing US$3 billion in a new standalone twin-maturity issue.Record issuance year in Australian domestic and Kangaroo markets
With deal flow for the year close to complete, and despite a relatively quiet final quarter, volume figures indicate that 2010 has been a record year for Australian credit issuance and for the Kangaroo market. There has also been increased year-on-year deal flow in the securitisation and corporate sectors, while domestic and Kauri issuance in New Zealand has eased without collapsing.Pepper closes 2010 with A$260 million low-doc RMBS
Pepper Homeloans (Pepper) closed its A$260 million (US$257 million) residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) deal on December 20, in the first non-conforming RMBS to come to the Australian market since the financial crisis. While prime loans comprise 60 per cent of the pool, loans extended to borrowers with prior credit impairment make up 40 per cent and loans extended on a limited documentation basis represent 66.9 per cent of the pool.APRA reveals Australian second-tier liquid assets standard: repo eligibility [UPDATED]
On December 17 the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) released its approach to meeting the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (Basel committee)'s bank liquid assets standards. Banks will be allowed to make up any shortfall in government-type debt with a committed secured liquidity facility containing as collateral any assets eligible for repo with the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).IFC's A$650 million 2015 Kangaroo tap includes A$250 million FRN [UPDATED]
International Finance Corporation (IFC) (AAA/Aaa) priced an increase to its March 2015 Kangaroo line on December 15, including in the deal its first-ever floating rate Kangaroo tranche. The deal comprises A$400 million (US$397.8 million) of fixed rate paper as a tap to the existing line alongside A$250 million of floating rate notes (FRNs) of the same maturity.