A brace of public holidays in Australia prompted an expected slow week in the local capital market. Only one Kangaroo deal priced during the week, alongside a handful of rating actions.

Provisional ratings have been assigned to Cuscal’s new Australian dollar residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) issue. The transaction, Integrity Series 2014-1 Trust, has an indicative volume of A$698.5 million (US$648.9 million) across four tranches according to a preliminary ratings report.

On April 24, Rentenbank (AAA/Aaa/AAA) priced a new 12-year Kangaroo line. According to KangaNews data, Rentenbank most recently visited the Australian dollar market on March 25 this year with a A$125 million (US$117.1 million) tap to its 2024 line. That deal had pricing of 65.5 basis points over Australian government bond.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) raised the official cash rate (OCR) – by 25 basis points, to 3.00 per cent – for the second time in two rates decisions on April 24. Analyst commentary following the decision focuses on the downside developments which have been added to RBNZ commentary, but the clear expectation remains that further hikes will follow including at the next rates decision in June.

Australian deal flow showed no sign of slowing on the lead up to the Easter long weekend. Securitisaion flow resumed with three new RMBS deals from Liberty Financial, AFG Securities and Pepper Australia. Meanwhile the World Bank priced the first-ever Kangaroo green bond, designed to fund projects targeted at climate change issues which directly affect developing countries.