The Reserve Bank of Australia says banks may continue getting less of their funding from short-term wholesale markets as consumers carry on fuelling deposits and corporates raise more of their own finance.Guy Debelle, the RBA's assistant governor for financial markets, said yesterday that bank wholesale debt issuance had now slowed to its slowest pace since the mid-1990s. The biggest slowing had been in short-term debt issuance, with banks seeking to lengthen their maturity profiles. Short-term wholesale debt, around one-third of total bank funding in 2007, was now around one-fifth.There were "reasonable grounds" to think these trends could continue, he told the KangaNews Australian DCM Summit in a speech. Future growth was likely to be investment-intensive, and hence largely funded by cash-rich companies or those that could go direct to the capital markets for funds, including resource companies. "This means that the growth in the economy in the period ahead may be associated with less growth in business credit than has been the case in the past," Debelle said.There were also "signs of a re-emergence" in asset-backed debt issuance, he told his audience.RBA board minutes released yesterday show the board was given a similar analysis of recent trends at its March meeting.If Debelle is right and the shrinkage in banks' short-term wholesale funding continues, it is likely to ease concerns that the banks are vulnerable to overseas lending shocks.Debelle also highlighted the expansion of non-resident issuers - the market in $A-denominated bonds issued by non-Australian firms. It has been "the fastest growing segment of the Australian capital market over much of the past decade, and certainly in recent months." And he pointed out that the weight of issuance has moved from offshore markets to the Australian (Kangaroo) market. Growth in the market had been driven by AAA-rated issuers and particularly by issuance by supranational and sovereign agencies (SSAs), he said. SSA issuers have issued more and more debt in Australian dollars over recent years, so that in 2010 more than eight per cent of all SSA issuance was in $A.