The pricing of two issues in the debt capital market in the past week confirms the widening trend in spreads evident in the primary market for a few months now.

Westpac (rated AA-) made a A$2.3 billion issue of fixed and floating rate notes and Macquarie Bank (rated A) made its second appearance for the year to raise a total of $900 million. 
The Westpac issue comprised $2.1 billion of five-year floating-rate and $175 million of five-year fixed-rate notes, priced at 108 basis points over the bank bill swap rate.Macquarie Bank's issue comprised $750 million of three-year floating-rate and $150 million of three-year fixed-rate notes, priced at 105 bps over.

It was only in July that Westpac raised $2.9 billion for five years, at a spread of just 90 bps. And in March, Macquarie Bank paid 110 bps over for $1.5 billion of five-year funding.

It appears that the market is moving into another period of credit spread widening. May 2013 saw the low point for five-year funds, when National Australia Bank raised $1.2 billion at a spread of just 78 bps. That came after the February 2012 high, when NAB paid 185 bps to raise $1.5 billion.Bank of Queensland (rated A-) raised a $550 million FRN and Auckland Council made a $25 million tap issue of its March 2026 line.
Bank of Queensland's FRNs were priced at 115 bps over bank bills and Auckland Council's tap was priced at 70.5 bps over CGS, and takes the size of the line to $125 million.