Bulletin – March 2010 Recent Trends in Australian Banks' Bond Issuance Abstract

Bonds are an important source of funding for Australian banks. While the financial crisis greatly affected capital markets, overall Australian banks retained good access to the bond market, with a sharp increase in the volume of bonds issued over the past couple of years. This reflected their sound balance sheets as well as the introduction of the Government guarantee which aided banks' access to bond markets at the height of the crisis. While price differentials continued to influence banks' decisions about where to issue bonds, during the crisis other factors increased in importance.

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