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Pricing of the A$525 million (US$453.39 million) 2010 deal brought by Bank of Scotland Australia Branch (AA/Aa1) (BoS) on August 14 is indicative of an environment in which investors are differentiating more between credits in the same ratings band, fund managers say.

Westpac Banking Corporation (AA/Aa1/AA-) (Westpac) priced a A$610 million (US$530.21 million) increase to its 2012 line on August 13 but has remained silent about the distribution of the self-led transaction. The 2012 bond now has a total of A$2.062 billion outstanding.

ANZ Banking Group (AA/Aa1) (ANZ) brought a total of A$1.17 billion (US$1.02 billion) of increases to the domestic market in a self-led deal on August 11, adding to the fixed tranche of its 2010 bond and both the fixed and floating portions of its 2011.

The fifth transaction from HSBC Sydney Branch (AA/Aa1) in less than a month was brought to market on August 8, with the issuer saying organic balance sheet expansion is likely to keep the branch active as a local borrower in future.

World Bank (AAA/Aaa) closed its New Zealand retail note offer on July 11, raising the target issue amount of NZ$100 million (US$70 million).

National Australia Bank (AA/Aa1/AA) (NAB) has issued a A$200 million (US$178.6 million) FRN private placement, priced on August 7 2008 via ABN AMRO.

On August 7 Municipality Finance (MuniFin) (AAA/Aaa) priced a A$90 million (US$82 million) increase to its April 18 2011 Kangaroo bond, bringing the total outstanding in this line to A$390 million. The tap was led by Daiwa SMBC.

Queensland Treasury Corporation (QTC) (Aaa/AAA/AAA) has priced a NZ$325 million (US$233 million) increase to its September 18 2017 issue via TD Securities.

Bank of New Zealand has launched an increase of its May 27 2013 line. The self-led deal, which will have a minimum size of NZ$50 million (US$36 million), will price on August 22.

In the last two weeks HSBC Sydney Branch has priced a total of A$350 million (US$322 million) of fixed and floating rate notes, in three separate transactions.

The Australian prime residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) market appears to be holding steady at 110 to 120 basis points over one-month bank bill swap rate (BBSW), with the last three RMBS transactions featuring prime MBS only all pricing within that range.

On July 25 University of Wollongong (UOW) (AA) issued A$42.5 million (US$39 million) of CPI-linked indexed-annuity bonds, maturing on August 5 2038. The transaction was led by nabCapital.