IAG tidies up contingent capital

Insurance Australia Group proposed on Friday a restructure of its A$550 million of Reset Exchangeable Securities (RES) issued by its New Zealand subsidiary in 2005. Described as contingent capital, IA.. read more

Solid demand for TCorp bonds

In other domestic market activity, NSW Treasury Corp received A$2.9 million of bids for a new June 2020 benchmark bond. TCorp sold A$1.5 billion of the bonds, which will be guaranteed by the Commonwea.. read more

144As, EMTNs, Reg Ds and Uridashis

Offshore, Westpac raised US$1.0 billion for two years in the US s144A market, at a spread of 30 basis points over Libor and the Australian branch of Rabobank made two more additions to outstanding EMT.. read more

Moody's rethinks bank ratings again

Moody's hasn't had much luck in recent years with the methodology and underlying supporting assumptions that it has used to assign credit ratings to banks. We mentioned in an earlier article today the.. read more

Corporate defaults continuing to rise

While the financial markets are upbeat about the rapid improvement in financial asset values, investor demand and secondary market liquidity, the real economy is still dealing with the fall-out from t.. read more

CDS big movers

In the CDS market, Markit reported that Dutch bank SNS Bank enjoyed a spread contraction of 40 basis points in its five-year senior CDS to 157 bps, making it one of the best performers on Wednesday. T.. read more

Pooled bonds not a bad idea

On the subject of diversified bond portfolios, it is worth mentioning that recent academic research has shown that the highly skewed return profile of corporate credit risk requires a portfolio of aro.. read more