Latest News
S&P Global Ratings (S&P) stayed its hand on Australia’s sovereign rating following the release of the Commonwealth’s mid-year economic and fiscal outlook (MYEFO) on 19 December 2016.
The Australian Office of Financial Management (AOFM) completed what was by some distance its most successful divestment auction for its residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) portfolio on 23 November 2017 and followed up with a fully subscribed auction on 14 December.
New Zealand took a small but important step towards replacing internal securitisation with a functional bank mortgage-backed securities market in late 2017 as the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) released a consultation paper on a new instrument it calls residential mortgage obligations (RMOs). The market is playing its cards close to its chest, but hurdles undoubtedly remain in place.
QBE priced a new additional tier-one (AT1) transaction on 10 November, printing US$400 million in a no-grow deal with a May 2025 first call date. In a first for the Australian market, the Reg S deal was issued in accordance with an issuer genderequality framework. Paul Byrne, QBE’s Sydney-based group treasurer, estimates this approach may have doubled the volume of demand the transaction attracted.
In July 2016 NRW.BANK, the state development bank for North-Rhine Westphalia, returned to the Kangaroo market after almost a decade, with a 10.5-year deal. The German agency followed with another transaction with the same tenor in October 2017. These deals form the first leg of the agency’s plan to expand its presence in the Kangaroo market.
Liquidity dynamics are changing in the Australian dollar market for local semi-government and global supranational, sovereign and agency (SSA) issuers. Three dealers on L-Bank’s Kangaroo panel share their perspectives on relative liquidity, the correlation between trading and volume on issue, and issuers supporting liquidity in their curves.
More than 830 guests attended the Financial Markets Foundation for Children (FMFC)’s 2017 Enchanted Ball, at Atlantic at Docklands in Melbourne on 10 November 2017. They enjoyed the opportunity to mingle, indulge in a three-course meal and be entertained by Matt Hetherington and the Matt Hetherington band.
As an intriguing – and productive – year in the Australasian corporate bond market draws to a close, it is worth looking back on how much progress has been made in nearly a decade since the financial crisis. Taking a longer-term perspective should also help shape a view about the extent to which diversity and volume gains will be sustainable through whatever the cycle brings next.
Since their introduction in 2007, the KangaNews Awards have been the most respected accolades given to participants in the Australian and New Zealand debt markets. The 2017 results recognise the proliferation of innovation that has taken place across a range of asset classes in the past year.
With a record number of delegates registering, and coming towards the end of a postcrisis record year for issuance, the Australian Securitisation Forum’s annual conference featured a remarkably positive mood. Speakers discussed the growing international diversity of the Australian market, regulatory developments especially around the nonbank sector and the emergence of new lenders and future technology.
S&P Global Ratings (S&P) stayed its hand on Australia’s sovereign rating following the release of the Commonwealth’s mid-year economic and fiscal outlook (MYEFO) on 19 December 2016.
S&P Global Ratings (S&P) stayed its hand on Australia’s sovereign rating following the release of the Commonwealth’s mid-year economic and fiscal outlook (MYEFO) on 19 December 2016.