Collateral clarity buffers Liberty’s largest-ever SME deal
Liberty Financial priced its largest-ever SME asset-backed securities (ABS) deal on 3 September. The issuer says the collateral mix of its SME transactions has evolved towards a heavier weighting of self-managed super fund (SMSF) investor loans, diminishing some concerns around collateral.
No turning back
COVID-19 has dominated global market bandwidth in 2020, to the extent that many regulatory initiatives and other market-development projects have been put on pause. This cannot be said for the process of adapting to the demise of interbank offer rates (IBORs), for which the hard deadline of 31 December 2021 continues to loom.
Qantas grounded but still garners domestic market support
Qantas’s new 10-year deal was business-as-usual process, the issuer says, as it sought to refinance a 2021 maturity and maintain a diverse funding base. The COVID-19 pandemic was always going to be a big factor in the deal, but Qantas tells KangaNews its financial record and future prospects were sufficient catalyst for investor engagement.
Next steps for new reference-rate adoption
While Australia is not facing the same compulsion as other global markets to drop its credit reference rate – in this case the bank-bill swap rate (BBSW) – there is still growing reason for market participants to understand, and start using, alternative reference rates (ARRs). Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) took a leadership position in 2019 by pricing a securitisation deal linked to Australian overnight index average (AONIA). The bank convened a roundtable with KangaNews to discuss the next phase of evolution.
New Zealand in the thick of global inflation-risk debate
New Zealand inflation-linked bonds reached what some investors regard as fair value in August having lagged an international recovery for the asset class. Some market users see potential for further gains, though this relies on real inflation finally starting to outstrip suppressed expectations.