Online articles

  • Across the mutual sector

    The first-ever KangaNews Mutual Sector Wholesale Funding Seminar took place in Sydney on 13 February 2019. As well as an in-depth exploration of the present and future of mutual funding strategy, the seminar covered a range of themes relevant to the sector including securitisation, the Australian housing market, investor relations and the forthcoming, federal-government backed, Australian Business Securitisation...
  • Australia on the Asian credit map

    Bryan Collins, head of Asian fixed income at Fidelity International (Fidelity) in Hong Kong, speaks to KangaNews about how the investment manager views Australia as an investment destination within the burgeoning regional institutional credit market.
  • Base camp

    The global derivatives community gathered in Hong Kong in April for the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) AGM, with interbank offered rate (IBOR) transition top of the agenda. Progress towards a new market paradigm continues to be made but the scale of a task in which cash markets have a key part to play cannot be underestimated.
  • CAF in the past, present and future

    CAF – Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) is about to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Gabriel Felpeto, chief financial officer at CAF in Bogotá, reflects on the supranational’s evolution as a lender, recaps its emergence as Australia’s first Latin American issuer, and discusses the development of green and social bonds. CAF has been active in the Kangaroo market since 2013, and now has more than A$1.3...
  • Can mutuals seize the opportunity?

    Australia’s mutual and customer-owned banks – often the forgotten sector of the local lending market – are at a critical juncture. The competitive environment presents an unprecedented growth opportunity but to take advantage many mutuals may need to overhaul their funding and capital strategies.
  • Credit-union sector: a global perspective

    The World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) is an international association for credit unions. There are credit unions in well over 100 countries, 90 of which are represented in WOCCU. KangaNews caught up with the organisation’s Madison, Wisconsin-based president and chief executive, Brian Branch, on an April study trip to Australia.
  • Euro market to the fore for Australian corporates as demand rallies

    Two Australian corporate borrowers accessed the euro market in the week beginning 18 March. Deal sources say Telstra Corporation (Telstra) and Scentre Group (Scentre) took advantage of the euro’s current status as the most competitive global funding option for Australian issuers to price 10-year deals, each with negative new-issue concessions.
  • Evolution evident in Australia's sustainable debt market

    The KangaNews Sustainable Debt Summit 2019 took place in Sydney on 18 March with a record number of delegates in attendance. The tone of discussion at the event has evolved in recent years, with the emphasis now much more clearly on delivery – the ‘how’ and ‘what’ as opposed to the ‘why’ of sustainable finance.
  • Fixed-income investor survey: neighbourhood watch

    The domestic housing market has soared as a risk factor in the minds of Australian fixed-income investors according to the latest Fitch Ratings (Fitch)-KangaNews Australian Fixed Income Investor Survey. A deeper look at the data suggests investors believe risk is contained, but the survey as a whole points to expectations of a slowing economy.
  • Goldilocks zone

    While Australia’s major banks took advantage of record liquidity and competitive pricing in their home market in the first quarter of 2019, European bank issuance enjoyed an upswing of its own. European market sources say the positive environment has been supported by an economic backdrop that is neither as bad as it has been nor as good as it could be.
  • Home advantage

    The first quarter of 2019 produced the highest volume of Australian big-four domestic senior funding since the financial crisis – without a commensurate uptick in deal quantity. Bank funders say the local market has deepened and become more reliable, but with funding tasks stabilising they also do not want to lose focus on offshore-market presence.
  • Improvement the next chapter in sustainability

    ING is the pioneer of the sustainability performance-linked loan (SPL) globally. Leonie Schreve, Amsterdam-based global head of sustainable finance, and Herry Cho, Singapore-based head of sustainable finance, Asia Pacific at ING, give KangaNews the lowdown on the nascent asset class.
  • Perpetual takes diversified high yield to retail

    To coincide with the launch of a new credit income trust by Perpetual Investments (Perpetual), Michael Korber, head of credit and fixed income, and Anne Moal, senior high-yield analyst at Perpetual in Sydney, share their views on the state of play in the fixed-income market. The new trust provides investors with monthly income by investing in a diversified pool of credit and fixed-income assets.
  • The big squeeze

    The Australian asset-management industry continues to grow but it has yet to produce a consistently diverse local credit market. Allocations to income-generating product will likely increase over time, though market dynamics suggest the most liquid and highest yielding ends of the market may have the healthiest prospects.
  • The financial sector and an ESG common cause

    The Australian Sustainable Finance Initiative (ASFI) aims to “set out a roadmap for realigning the finance sector to support greater social, environmental and economic outcomes”. Following its launch at the end of March, KangaNews spoke to seven member institutions of the ASFI steering committee about the initiative’s goals and how they will be measured.
  • The last lever

    One of the main developments in the central-bank world in the decade since the financial crisis has been the emergence of a wider range of tools designed to complement the blunt instrument of rate moves. In a world where wages growth is the consistent economic laggard, perhaps it is time to explore macroprudential policy for wages.
  • Toyota Australia looks offshore to meet increased funding task

    Toyota Finance Australia (Toyota Australia) priced its largest-ever euro deal on 1 April. The issuer says an increased funding task since entering into a global partnership with Mazda Motor Corporation is leading it to lean more on offshore markets and is also seeing it consider public issuance in alternative asset classes.
  • Woolworths delivers next evolution of Australian green-bond issuance

    The scale of demand for Woolworths’ debut green bond – which supported a significant price revision – further demonstrates the potential of the asset class for local corporate borrowers, issuer and leads say. Demand for certified sustainable bonds could even be sufficient to put mid-curve domestic issuance on a pricing par with bank loans and thus entice more issuers to market.
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