National Australia Bank on Thursday night established an up-to-date benchmark for the sale of unsecured term debt in the US bond market, with the NAB bond being issued during a week of steady sales of kangaroo bonds that may help to offset some of the pressure on the basis swap keeping the overall cost of foreign borrowing high for banks.NAB sold US$2.5 billion in two tranches. The first was US$1.0 billion bond with a three-year life priced at 160 basis points over US treasury bonds. The second was a US$1.5 billion bond priced at 190 bps over US treasuries.This is the first sale of unsecured term debt in offshore markets by an Australian bank since the messy opening of the covered bond market in January.Earlier in the week, Westpac sold approximately A$1.3 billion for five years in the Samurai market. The bank raised Â¥14 billion at Libor plus 83 bps and Â¥100 billion at a yield of 1.2 per cent. The floating rate tranche would swap back at around 190 bps to 200 bps over bank bills.   One trend that may help to contain the price paid by banks on funds swapped back to Australia dollars is the abundant borrowing last week in Australian dollars by offshore financial institutions.World Bank, rated AAA, an irregular user of the Australian dollar bond market, raised A$700 million in five-year debt and A$350 million in ten-year debt. The World Bank placed the first tranche at a spread of 99 basis points over Commonwealth government bonds and the second at a spread of 99.75 bps.German financier KfW, rated AAA, made its fourth visit to the market in 2012, this time to add A$350 billion to its March 2017 line. The increase was priced at 140.25 bps over CGS. It takes outstanding debt to A$2.4 billion.And, in between a positive rating action from Standard & Poor's and a negative one from Fitch Ratings, the Sydney branch of HSBC, which is rated AA-, priced A$500 million of three-year floating rate notes at 115 bps over bank bills. For details on the rating actions see below.Bank of China, rated A, made its domestic debut via its Sydney branch. The bank priced A$600 million of three-year transferrable certificates of deposit at 170 bps over bank bills.Lastly, on Friday, Rentenbank (rated AAA) and the Asian Development Bank (rated AAA) marked their 2012 return with new March 2020 and 2022 issues, respectively. Rentenbank raised A$250 million at a spread of 157.75 bps over CGS, while ADB was able to raise A$500 million at 99.5 bps over CGS.Suncorp, meanwhile, quietly placed A$50 million for one year and paid 75 bps over bank bills for the pleasure.The New Zealand dollar market was also moderately active.ANZ National Bank priced NZ$150 million of five-year floating rate notes at 190 bps over bank bills in the domestic market. In offshore markets, ANZ National sold €250 million of four-year covered bonds. The covered bonds were priced at 85 bps over mid-swap, which should swap back to New