Australia

This November would mark three years since Australia’s Westpac strengthened its foray into India, with the opening of a branch in Mumbai. With an eight year presence in India under its belt, the bank is keen to develop relationships and offer more of its capabilities in trade finance, structured commodity finance and other products.

Westpac Banking Corp has completed a swift, efficient foray into the Singapore dollar market, printing Basel III tier two notes on August 4. Demand was such that the borrower was able to price the bond by late afternoon and still manage to meet its pricing and diversification goals.

HSBC has hired senior banker Scott Couzner to head its mergers & acquisitions team in Australia.

A pair of North American financial names took advantage of strong demand for shorter dated floating rate Australian dollar paper this week.

The all-important deadline of July 20 passed without incident, Greece having redeemed its debt to the ECB with the help of a bridging loan. That doesn’t mean the crisis in Greece is resolved – far from it – but it does give the market some breathing space.

Members Equity Bank priced a A$1.5bn Australian RMBS, its first of the year.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Lloyds Bank sold a quartet of private medium term notes in renminbi on Monday — and more notes in the currency could follow.

Euro covered bond issuance is ramping up with Westpac Banking Corporation joining Lloyds in the market on Wednesday. Despite a slower book build which drew criticism from rival bankers, Westpac took €1bn with a single digit concession.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia printed the second dollar bond of the week from an Aussie issuer on Thursday. Westpac’s success on Tuesday gave bankers the confidence to progress, but the trade was executed with caution.

Westpac’s $800m three year floating rate covered bond, issued on Tuesday, has piqued interest from other covered bond issuers outside Europe, who could be ready to launch deals at short notice.

The dollar market continued to sustain covered bonds on Wednesday as DNB mandated leads for a five year, a day after ANZ issued $1.25bn in the same tenor. The Australian bank got better execution than would have been achieved in euros and could have priced even tighter. The excellent result is testimony to the issuer’s long absence and to the depth of demand evident across the dollar fixed income market.

Torrid market conditions have kept issuers away from the euro benchmark market since April 29, forcing borrows to consider alternative currencies. On Tuesday, Abbey printed a £500m three year sterling deal, and even though the deal was not subscribed, bankers felt the sterling market was still open. Separately, ANZ has mandated leads for the second dollar benchmark from Australia this year.