Briefs: APRA on insurance performance, ANZ's covered bonds, BBY under administration, and more

Banking Day staff
  • Underwriting in Australia's insurance sector tanked over the year to March 2015. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority's General Insurance Performance Statistics for the quarter show the industry underwriting result for the year ended March 2015 was a profit of A$1.6 billion, compared with a $4.7 billion profit for the previous year. The lower underwriting result was due to the increase in net incurred claims, APRA said. Total industry net profit after tax in the year ended 31 March 2015 was $3.8 billion, down from $4.7 billion in the previous year.

  • Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings have both assigned their highest long-term ratings (Aaa and AAA, respectively) to the US$1.25 billion covered bonds issued by Australia and New Zealand Banking Group under its Australian mortgage covered bond programme. Features of the pool include the level of over-collateralisation (28 per cent), and the unindexed loan-to-value ratio of 65 per cent. This brings ANZ's total outstanding issuance to A$18 billion, according to Fitch. The fixed rate bond is due in May 2020 and benefits from a 12-month extendable maturity.

  • Major broking house BBY, which holds an Australian financial services license and has offices in Adelaide, Auckland, Brisbane, Gold Coast, London, Melbourne, New York, Perth and Wellington, has been placed into voluntary administration, from 18 May 2015. This follows the firm's exit from options clearing two weeks ago.

  • In what is proving to be busy week for the market regulators, ASIC has proposed draft rules to implement mandatory central clearing requirements for certain over-the-counter derivatives. The proposals are the next stage in Australia meeting its G20 commitments to reform OTC derivatives markets following the global financial crisis.