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Bank of Queensland made the biggest splash last week with a $500 million, 2.75 year, domestic floating rate note issue. The notes were priced at 115 basis points over bank bills. read more

On Saturday the prime minister, Kevin Rudd, announced the establishment, in partnership with the four major banks, of the Australian Business Investment Partnership. ABIP, which should be operational.. read more

Last week it was the Royal Bank of Scotland's turn to flag massive losses and be the subject of rating actions from the three major rating agencies. read more

Equity markets around the world moved sharply lower again last week. The optimism of the new year was quickly replaced by the fear, if not the reality, of the next round of corporate reporting for Dec.. read more

In January 2008 issuance in the domestic corporate bond market totalled A$6.6 billion - A$4.2 billion was issued by the domestic banks and A$2.4 billion was from kangaroo issuers. read more

Moody's Investor Service and Standard and Poor's were quick to move after Citigroup announced a US$12.1 billion fourth quarter loss and that it was splitting itself in two. Moody's placed its 'A1/P1'.. read more

As expected, the major banks moved quickly to continue to fill their 2009 funding requirements, issuing as much as $14.3 billion of bonds last week. The banks issued only $8.7 billion of bonds in the.. read more

Standard & Poor's last week released its latest mortgage arrears data for the month of October 2008.  S&P noted that arrears on the mortgages underlying prime Australian RMBS had risen to.. read more

Following on from Fitch Ratings the week before, Standard & Poor's and Moody's Investors Service have raised their ratings on Wachovia Corporation and its banking operations, following its acquisi.. read more

The Australian banks were by far and away the largest issuers in the domestic corporate bond market and in international markets, relative to other Australian issuers, in 2008. read more