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The Senate committee examining the bill proposing exemption from interest withholding tax (IWT) for offshore buyers of Australian state and territory debt has asked for more time to reach its conclusions, but state treasury representatives remain hopeful of an unproblematic resolution.

The Australian Treasury has answered one of the biggest questions surrounding its proposed guarantee on bank term funding – the fee that will be levied for the guarantee to be applied to bond issues – but bank funding officials believe there are still too many unanswered questions to predict whether they will use the scheme.

In the last three weeks the New Zealand market has bucked the trend for credit aversion with three corporate bond deals were opening in that time – one of them a Kauri and two aimed at an institutional investor base.

Council of Europe Development Bank (AAA/Aaa/AAA) (CEB) returned to the Kauri market on October 10 with an ANZ-led NZ$50 million (US$29.57 million) increase to its 2018 line, which is the longest-dated Kauri bond in the market.

Northern Territory Treasury Corporation (Aa1) (NTTC) increased its 2013 bond by A$106 million (US$73.73 million) on October 8 in a UBS Investment Bank (UBS)-led deal, as the issuer seeks, like the other Australian states, to finance significant infrastructure projects.

Rentenbank (AAA/Aaa/AAA) and Kommunalbanken Norway (KBN) (AAA/Aaa) priced deals in the Kauri market on October 7 and 8 respectively, with the Bank of New Zealand (BNZ)-led new Rentenbank 2011 deal in particular drawing attention as a result of its swap-flat pricing.

Westpac Banking Corporation (AA/Aa1/AA-) (Westpac) brought the first domestic vanilla transaction for over six weeks on October 2, pricing a total of A$1.48 billion (US$1.17 billion) of two- and three-year paper at pricing levels investors say are impressive given recent market turmoil.

On September 30 ANZ Banking Group (ANZ) closed the convertible preference share (CPS) offer it launched at the end of August, upsizing the transaction slightly to A$1.081 billion (US$856.69 million). The firm has been busy in the hybrid market of late, also pricing a A$600 million transaction through its New York branch on September 26.

Securitisation market participants have come out broadly in favour of the September 26 announcement by the commonwealth treasury that Australian Office of Financial Management (AOFM) will buy A$4 billion (US$3.19 billion) of mortgage-backed assets, though doubts remain regarding how the plan will be put into action and its overall efficacy.

Political progress on the exemption of semi-government bonds from interest withholding tax (IWT) was a central topic of discussion as Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CommBank) and Queensland Treasury Corporation (QTC) brought Australian state treasuries and government treasuries from both Australia and New Zealand together with international investors in Australia on September 24-27.

Municipality Finance (AAA/Aaa) (MuniFin) doubled the size of its only outstanding Kauri bond, the 2011, on September 23, adding NZ$100 million (US$68.81 million) to its size in a transaction that launched and priced in a day to reduce the impact of volatile markets.

The Challenger Millennium Series 2008-1 Trust RMBS deal priced on September 19, riding out heightened market volatility since its opening a week previously and even upsizing slightly, to A$440.8 million (US$355.11 million) from its indicative A$400 million. The transaction was led by nabCapital, Royal Bank of Scotland Australia and Barclays Capital.