Australia

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has plans to drop the risk retention requirement for Australian securitization issuers, according to proposed revisions to its prudential framework.

Intel, the American technology company, raised $A800m in its debut Kangaroo deal on Tuesday afternoon, drawing strong demand from Asian investors.

National Australia Bank printed a €750m seven year covered bond on Monday. But the deal didn’t fly off the shelf, even though it offered a substantial premium to other Australian covered bonds. The lack of European Central Bank repo eligibility and slackening demand in the seven year area was blamed.

Standard Chartered’s former head of debt capital markets for Hong Kong, Peter Szekely, has moved to a new position at Australia and New Zealand Bank.

Citi has made the changes to its Australia and New Zealand debt franchise, promoting James Arnold and Ian Campbell to lead the business.

National Bank of Australia issued a €750m seven year covered bond on Monday. The deal didn’t fly off the shelf, even though it offered a substantial premium to other bonds. The lack of ECB repo eligibility and slackening demand in the intermediate part of the curve was blamed.

Six borrowers raised nearly €5bn in the covered bond market this week, once again surpassing supply expectations. The star attraction, notable for both its size and tenor, was a €1.5bn three year from the Norwegian issuer, Sparebank 1 Boligkreditt.

Westpac has mandated leads and opened books for a dollar benchmark covered bond, to be priced on Monday. And in euros, Yorkshire Building Society (YBS) has mandated leads for a €500m no-grow seven year benchmark, to be launched on Tuesday.

Rabobank has announced two senior management changes to its Australia and New Zealand operations, promoting Peter Knoblanche and Todd Charteris from within.

Swedish lender Swedbank kept Australian dollar supply ticking over on Tuesday, pricing its first bond in the currency since 2008.

KfW has found stronger than expected demand after tapping the belly of its Kangaroo bond curve, as a Canadian province printed at the long end in the format.

After weeks of volatility and fractious executions in Europe's corporate bond markets, BHP Billiton has pulled off the biggest ever corporate hybrid bond sale, proving investors are open to buying even quite challenging deals, if they come with lashings of yield, writes Ross Lancaster.