Westpac's New Zealand arm has launched a five-year unsecured bond issue which will be priced on Wednesday (21 March) and issued on Friday. The bank is hoping to raise at least NZ$100 million with the issue, targeted at both retail and institutional investors. It says the capital raised will be used for "general corporate purposes" including loans to Westpac NZ customers. As interest.co.nz points out, the indicated return of 3.73 per cent is less than Westpac NZ's current retail five-year term deposit rate of 4.10 percent. The notes have been rated AA- by S&P Global Ratings, and A1 by Moody's.