La Trobe Financial Services has started marketing a securitisation of non-conforming and prime residential mortgages, with the face value of the notes totalling A$500 million. There are eight classes of securities in the La Trobe Financial Capital Markets Trust 2018-1, backed by a collateral pool of loans originated by La Trobe. S&P Global Ratings has assigned preliminary ratings to all classes of notes other than the $3.50 million sellers notes. The top three tranches of Class A notes ($100 million, $150 million and $89 million, respectively) have been assigned preliminary ratings of AAA (sf) from S&P and (P)Aaa (sf) from Moody's. The heads of taxation from Westpac NZ and BNZ (NAB's New Zealand subsidiary) told a select committee yesterday that proposed tax changes were poorly targeted and could criminalise bank directors. The new Labour-led coalition government is planning changes it hopes will prevent large international corporations paying artificially low taxes in New Zealand. Westpac's head of tax Jo Sawden told MPs that banks were "low risk" for such behaviour as they were already heavily regulated. The proposed legislation was "a sledgehammer for something you could use an ice pick for," Sawden said, pointing out that IRD already knew which companies were complicit and should focus the rule changes on them. BNZ's head of taxation Campbell Rapley said bank directors were concerned about plans to expand IRD's information gathering powers, which could see banks compelled to hand over data about overseas clients. Rapley said this might mean they then breached privacy laws in other jurisdictions, causing a compliance issue for the banks. The bill provides for criminal penalties for non-compliance, leading Rapley to add: "That creates a difficult situation for the directors. Which of the two criminal laws do I want to break?"