News
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) has embarked on an asset purchasing programme as part of its regular open market operations in support of monetary policy goals. KangaNews will provide subscribers with easy access to asset purchase data, which will be updated as information is made publicly available by the RBNZ.
Queensland’s budget reveals an improving state economy including upgraded revenue projections. Nonetheless, the state government is keen to continue spurring the recovery via fiscal stimulus. Queensland’s treasurer and minister for investment, Cameron Dick, discusses the latest budget measures and forecasts, while Queensland Treasury Corporation’s chief executive, Philip Noble, expands on the state’s debt funding task.
KangaNews and Westpac Institutional Bank hosted their annual roundtable for Australia’s sovereign and semi-government issuers in June – via audioconference, as the discussion happened as many Australian states were re-entering lockdown following the latest outbreak of COVID-19. Despite the sting in the pandemic’s tail, issuers are confident about the resilience and functionality of their market as they enter new financial years.
Global and local regulators released a swathe of guidelines in the first half of 2021 regarding the incorporation of climate risk into financial institutions’ standard risk-assessment processes. The Australian prudential regulator and banks are largely aligned with the global direction of travel. But they face the unique challenge of managing risk in the face of the issue’s deep politicisation.
The two most discussed concepts in today’s debt capital market could well be the ever-growing relevance of sustainable finance and the return of inflation as a live consideration. FTSE Russell and Refinitiv – now aligned under common ownership – have brought the two together in an innovative new index offering.
A raft of new facilities completed in Q2 marks the sustainability-linked loan as the vogue product for corporate borrowers seeking to align their funding operations with business-wide sustainability strategies. Borrowers are emerging across a wealth of sectors, though the new facilities are not without controversy.
Australian house prices have once again defied expectations, this time from the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, by resuming a seemingly unstoppable upward trajectory. While the Reserve Bank of Australia continues to insist rate hikes are not coming in the medium term, speculation is mounting about macroprudential intervention and financial-stability risk.
Australian corporate and nonbank borrowers have made the most of a playing field left open to them by the absence of major-bank senior bond issuance since early 2020. Whether the credit market remains as deep for these borrowers once banks return is one of the biggest questions heading into the second half of 2021.
While headlines focus on Asia-Pacific territorial and trade disputes, arguably the more significant trend is China’s accumulation of soft power. Participants in a session at the KangaNews Debt Capital Markets Summit 2021 highlighted the environmental, social and governance arena as one to watch.
The KangaNews Debt Capital Markets Summit 2021 virtual event took place on 9 June, ahead of another important period for the Australian economy and market’s emergence from the COVID-19 crisis. Discussions throughout the day reiterated the importance of Reserve Bank of Australia policy settings for determining the path of both.
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and IDB Invest are the latest in a raft of supranational, sovereign and agency issuers to leverage sustainable-finance programmes into successful Australian dollar transactions. The issuers are intent on incorporating Kangaroo issuance into long-term funding plans, with a focus on responding to local-investor feedback.