The circumstances of 2020 have put particular pressure on corporate treasuries. Where the financial crisis was spawned – and, in Australia’s case, largely remained – in financial markets, COVID-19 rapidly developed from a public-health emergency into the greatest shock the real economy has seen in lifetimes. 

The Australian securitisation industry has been at the front line of market evolution, from its position at the eye of the financial-crisis storm to the proactive role played by the Australian Securitisation Forum (ASF)’s Women in Securitisation (WIS) subcommittee.

The COVID-19 crisis is having a profound impact across economies, markets and societies. ANZ and KangaNews, in association with Women in Banking and Finance, hosted business and market leaders to talk through the response so far and the wide-reaching nature of future changes.

Linda Hutchison, executive director, institutional sales, and Anne McLeod, head of agency origination, at Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) in Sydney, talk about their careers in finance and how gender equality has changed over this time as well as how the pandemic-induced shift to working from home could help further level the playing field.

TransGrid printed its debut Australian dollar deal on 15 September and in the process continued a run of strong market outcomes for defensive local credits. The issuer was keen to establish a beachhead in its domestic market as it eyes a greater capex-related funding requirement in the coming years.

Every year, KangaNews and RBC Capital Markets host the heads of funding from Australia’s big-four banks to discuss market conditions and the outlook for their sector. In 2020, the COVID-19 crisis has reshaped the landscape completely – most notably by almost completely eliminating the majors’ funding gap and thus removing them from public senior debt markets since the first months of the year.

While Australia is not facing the same compulsion as other global markets to drop its credit reference rate – in this case the bank-bill swap rate (BBSW) – there is still growing reason for market participants to understand, and start using, alternative reference rates (ARRs). Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) took a leadership position in 2019 by pricing a securitisation deal linked to Australian overnight index average (AONIA). The bank convened a roundtable with KangaNews to discuss the next phase of evolution.

On 9 September, Charter Hall Exchange Finance (A3), managed by the Charter Hall Group, mandated Commonwealth Bank of Australia to arrange a conference call on 11 September regarding a potential Australian dollar denominated transaction, offered in either or both 10- and 12-year tenors.

On 9 September, China Construction Bank New Zealand (CCB New Zealand) (A1/A) mandated ANZ, BNZ, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac Banking Corporation New Zealand Branch to arrange an investor update call ahead of a potential three-year domestic deal.