National Australia Bank mandated its offshore banks overnight on Tuesday, Australian time, to launch a new covered bond issue and by yesterday morning had closed a US dollar-denominated transaction. A total of US$1.25 billion was raised in the five-year 144A/RegS private placement, which priced at 33 basis points over US mid swaps. Simon Fletcher, a senior credit analyst for financial institutions at NAB, calculated this as equivalent to 63 bps over Australian swaps "on a cross-currency basis."In a note to NAB's insto clients, Fletcher also observed that this covered bond deal follows on from the bank's €750m seven-year covered issue in May and, "despite strong issuance in the first and second quarters, mostly with offshore transactions, this appeared to be the first public covered bond issued by one of the Big Four this quarter." The latest covered bond issue from NAB comes two and a half months later than, but roughly on a par with, CBA's similar sized June 144A issue, priced at an equivalent to 62 bps over Australian swap rates, but wider than Westpac's €750m June MTN deal at 58 bps.