12-month bank funding in vogue
ANZ on Thursday priced a A$1.1 billion one year issue in the domestic corporate bond market at 43 basis points over bank bills. This is the same level at which Commonwealth Bank priced its recent one-year FRN issues.The Australian branch of Rabobank (rated AA-), like ANZ, also sought one year funding, paying 54 bps over bank bills for the privilege.However, pricing is not immediately the matter of interest here but the fact that the market has seen almost A$2.9 billion of one FRNs issued by two major banks and now a key foreign name in just over a month. With no change in the pricing of these issues, the demand is there for the time being and it seems likely now that further issuance of this type can be expected.One year issuance in this volume has not been seen in the domestic market previously. But we note that two A$500 million, one year FRN issues were seen in July last year. One was from ANZ and the other from Westpac.Now on the subject of pricing, those 2015 issues were priced at 25 bps over bank bills, 18 bps less than ANZ needed to pay last week.This leaves banks on stronger ground when it comes to defending product pricing and customer rates.