Macquarie Bank has completed a A$3.8 billion issue of residential mortgage-backed securities – the biggest securitisation deal in the Australian market since Commonwealth Bank issued A$4 billion of mortgage-backed securities in 2014.

The $3.5 billion of A notes, which have a weighted average life of three years. were priced at a margin of 55 basis points over the one-month bank bill swap rate.

The $300 million of B notes, which have a weighted average life of 9.6 years, were retained by Macquarie Bank.

The transaction signals the return of large financial institutions to the RMBS market. The availability of funding under the Reserve Bank’s term funding facility, which wound up last month, meant that the bigger ADIs were much less active in the capital markets over the past year.