Preliminary numbers from Thomson Reuters show that the Asia Pacific (ex-Japan) loan market closed 1088 deals with a volume of US$3923 billion between January 2016 and November 2016. This was a 6.2 per cent decline, compared to the same time last year. Australasia provided almost US$58 billion of the total loans written in the region, with ANZ's loan teams showing the way. In a sign that companies are locking in the record low interest rates, Thomson Reuters charts show that by the end of November, over a quarter (28.2 per cent) of loans closed in APAC (excluding Japan) carried a five year tenor, and 17.8 per cent of loans carried a three year tenor. However, in 4Q 2016, the demand for five-year loans jumped to 47 per cent - that is, almost half of the volume of loans demanded in the region over the two months were longer dated.  This is not an aberration: since the start of 2016, close to a quarter (22.1 per cent) of the loans in the region have carried a tenor of nine years or more. Australasia's syndicated loan markets tell a tale of decline. Australian and New Zealand loan arrangers and bookrunners closed 147 deals with a total volume of US$57.9 billion. This volume corresponds to a decrease of 25.4 per cent compared to the same time last year, while deal count decreased by about a third. ANZ continues to place high on the APAC Loan League Tables: in the 2016 YTD APAC (ex-Japan) mandated arranger tables, the "Blue Bank" was in seventh spot -and the only Australian bank in the top ten, although the rest of the Big Four were in 11th to 13th places, respectively . In the APAC bookrunner league tables, the gap was yet more clear-cut, with ANZ in fourth spot, with US$12.5 billion volume of loans from 69 deals giving it a 4.41 per cent market share, well ahead of NAB's 3.13 market share (US$8.9 billion from 35 deals).