Investors in six series of covered bonds issued by Westpac will be paid an incentive fee of five basis points if they agree to revised terms for an aggregate A$A12 billion in debt. Westpac said in a circular to investors it wanted to "align the terms and conditions of the older outstanding series with those commonly seen in the covered bond market to ensure ongoing cost efficiency." The main change is to provide that, instead of being "hard bullet" covered bonds, the bonds will become "soft bullet "with an "Extended Due for Payment Date." A week after announcing her retirement from her position as chair of Telstra, Catherine Livingstone has joined the Commonwealth Bank board. Livingstone replaces Jane Hemstritch, who is stepping down after nine years on the CBA board. Livingstone received plenty of praise for her work on Telstra board. She has also chaired the CSIRO and been a Macquarie Group director. Australian businesses are expecting a difficult June quarter, Dun & Bradstreet reports. Sales, profit, employment and capital investment measures in D&B's latest Business Expectations Survey are all down from the previous quarter and at their lowest level for about two years. Responses from companies in the finance, insurance and real estate sector held up better than most other industries. Only 13.7 per cent of businesses intend to seek finance or new credit in the quarter ahead. Newcastle Permanent Building Society, rated A2/BBB+ by Moody's and S&P, respectively, has mandated ANZ and NAB to arrange a series of fixed-income investor meetings in Melbourne and Sydney for the week commencing 7 March. The bankers were giving nothing away though: "A potential capital markets transaction may follow, subject to market conditions," ran the usual standard statement from one of the bankers on the deal.