Spanish bank Banco Santander is scaling back its Australian operation, according to the report in The Australian Financial Review. The bank's local chief executive, Jose Blanco, left the bank yesterday. There is no comment in the report from Banco Santander, which obtained a branch banking licence in Australia a year ago.Commonwealth Bank has launched a A$750 million issue of residential mortgage-backed securities. Medallion Trust Series 2012-1 is a pool of residential mortgages with an average loan-to-valuation ratio of 59.3 per cent and average seasoning of 38.5 months.Australian banks have an opportunity to fill the gap in financing Asian agricultural businesses lefts by the withdrawal of European bans from the region, an ANZ executive said yesterday. Reuters reported comments by ANZ deputy chief executive Graham Hodges, who said ANZ had recently closed its biggest single lending facility, at A$750 million, for an agricultural client. Hodges said big global agricultural companies expect banks to work across borders.Credit card rates have the stickiest interest rates in the retail financial services market, but yesterday Community First Credit Union bucked the trend by cutting the rate on its Low Rate Visa Card and its McGrath Pink Visa Card by 25 basis points, to 9.5 per cent. Community First claims to have the lowest credit card rate on the market. The rate applies to purchases, cash advances and balance transfers.