Macquarie Group has launched an issue of capital notes, seeking A$400 million. Macquarie Group Capital Notes 2 are fully paid, unsecured, subordinated, non-cumulative, perpetual and convertible notes. They will replace a US$400 million hybrid issue, Preferred Membership Interests. The new notes will qualify as eligible capital for regulatory purposes. The Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia has two new directors following board election results last week. Melissa Gielnik from Smart Lending and Murray Cowan of Better Mortgage Management . Retiring directors include Tim Brown, the chief executive of Voa Financial, Jeana Scott of Kandu Finance and Darren McLeod of Beyond Bank. Standard & Poor's has lowered its rating on the tranche 3 notes issued by Interstar NZ Millennium Series 2004-A Trust from A to BBB after an analysis of long-dated arrears and an increasingly concentrated pool of mortgages.  The long-dated arrears were worth A$2.2 million or 14 per cent of the remaining pool balance, while the top ten borrowers made up 28 per cent of the pool. New Zealand regional bank SBS Bank has launched the first sub four per cent mortgage rate offered in New Zealand for more than 40 years. The Invercargill-based former Southland Building Society launched a one-year fixed rate mortgage at 3.99 per cent to owner-occupiers borrowing less than 80 per cent of the value of the property. SBS, which launched a lending unit in Auckland this year, said the rate was a short-term special rate to mark a rebranding, and was only available to new borrowers wanting more than NZ$100,000. The offer cracks the key four per cent level that some have predicted before Christmas if the Reserve Bank lowers its inflation and Official Cash Rate forecasts when it releases its next Monetary Policy Statement on December 10.