Pepper Group has launched an issue of residential mortgage-backed securities, seeking A$590 million of funds. Pepper Residential Securities Trust No.16 includes a US dollar tranche of bullet notes. The issue is backed by a pool of non-conforming loans, including loans to borrowers with impaired credit histories (44.2 per cent) and loans made on a "limited documentation" basis (36.1 per cent). Macquarie Group is believed to be preparing a bid for Britain's £4 billion renewable energy investment arm, the Green Investment Bank. GIB was set up in 2012 to invest in UK green infrastructure projects including wind farms, waste and bioenergy and offshore renewables. The AFR's Street Talk understands Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets responded to an expressions of interest round earlier this month and has a team running early stage due diligence on its assets. Sources said Macquarie was likely to go up against a heavyweight field of UK and North American pension and endowment funds, sovereign wealth funds out of the Middle East and Asian strategic investors. MasterCard's Consumer Confidence Index shows the confidence of Australian consumers has improved by 2.9 points since the first half of 2015 to 42.4, the highest reading since the second half of 2013.  The index is based on a survey of 1250 Australian adults and measures five economic indicators - economy, employment, regular income prospects, stock market, and quality of life. While still considered pessimistic, the overall increase in Australian confidence is largely attributable to improvements in the outlook for the labour market. ASIC forum delegates have heard that a key piece of research into dealing with whistleblowing is about to be launched, in conjunction with the University of Queensland and several other organisations. It has been independently funded by the Australian Research Council. The project website explains that the survey is open until 30 June. The relevant website is here: http://www.griffith.edu.au/whistleblowing