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The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA)'s October 4 decision to leave cash rates unchanged at 4.75 per cent – for the 11th month in succession – did not come as a surprise to economists. The RBA noted the continued resilience of the Chinese economy in the face of successive waves of bad news from Europe and the US, although analysts have interpreted the reserve bank's overall tone as broadly dovish.

While no new public deals priced in the Australian markets in the week ending September 30, New Zealand saw a new Kauri and domestic bank issue as well as the launch of a new retail bond and just the third securitisation deal to emerge post-crisis.

Fitch Ratings (Fitch) and Standard & Poor's (S&P) have downgraded their sovereign ratings on New Zealand, citing the country's net external debt position as the reason for the move. New Zealand now has a local currency rating of AA+ and foreign currency rating of AA from both Fitch and S&P, one notch below their previous levels. The outlook on all these ratings is stable.

Fleet Partners' New Zealand subsidiary, Fleet Holdings NZ (Fleet NZ), has completed its debut asset-backed securities (ABS) transaction in the form of a NZ$300 million (US$227.9 million) private placement, bought by ANZ National, Bank of New Zealand and Westpac Banking Corporation. The deal is just the third securitisation in New Zealand in the financial crisis era and the country's first non-mortgage deal.

Auckland International Airport (Auckland Airport) (A-) closed its first domestic bond issue since 2009 in the form of a six-year retail offering on September 29. The fixed-rate transaction, which has an interest rate of 5.47 per cent and spread of 150 basis points over government bonds, has a volume of NZ$100 million (US$77.8 million).

Securitisation deal flow resumed after an almost month-long absence in the week ending September 23, with two new public deals pricing and a third launched. Following a pair of deals at the back end of last week, the primary Australian credit market returned to stillness. The only activity in New Zealand was a new Kauri deal.

Preliminary ratings on a new residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) issue from Columbus Capital (Columbus) have been assigned, with the forthcoming issue having an indicative size of A$110 million (US$112.9 million). The proceeds of the transaction are set to redeem existing notes issued by Columbus in July 2008 at a volume of A$208 million.

On September 21 National Australia Bank (NAB) priced its second Australian residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) transaction this year at a size of A$1.5 billion (US$1.5 billion). National RMBS Trust Series 2011-2 is the fifth new RMBS to be issued by an Australian big four bank in 2011 and adds to the A$1 billion of RMBS NAB sold in May.