“Our bond origination and syndicate teams did a fantastic job navigating the very unusual and, at times, challenging circumstances 2021 delivered. They worked closely with client relationship colleagues to understand the funding and sustainability needs of our clients and were able to meet those needs through a variety of avenues.
“In particular, environment, social and governance (ESG) linked issuance saw continued high growth and transition targets remain well and truly front and centre in all our discussions with clients – both issuers and investors.”
CBA Acting Executive General Manager of Global Markets Chris McLachlan added that the bank’s close partnership with its clients was key to developing products that help both issuers and investors pursue their respective strategies.
“We have worked closely with our clients to drive product innovation, both for sustainability and sustainability-linked bond issues and loans, as well as building entirely new products like ESG term deposits and green repos.
“In addition to our strong presence in flow business, we’ve seen further development of our structuring capabilities as part of our strategy of connecting pools of capital across our network with financing solutions for our clients.”
CBA Managing Director of Global Syndicate Des Fennell said the total volume of issuance was down on the record level of 2020, however this was still another big year for issuance across the A$ AMTN market.
“The interest rate and inflation environment has been top of mind for clients and a key consideration for borrowers when tapping capital markets. These will be continue to be prominent themes for markets in the foreseeable future.
“As issuers navigate a fast-moving economic environment and look to anticipated interest rate increases from the RBA and the Fed, we will continue to work closely with institutional and government clients to support their funding needs.
“We anticipate Australian public debt market issuance will grow in 2022, as more domestic financial institutions return to normalised issuance patterns, while the education and public finance sector continues to take advantage of historically low rates.”
CBA also achieved one of its best ever rankings in the 2021 Peter Lee client survey of sales and research services for fixed income, FX and rates.
In high grade and semi-government bonds the bank ranked effectively equal first for market share, and second for quality of service in corporate bonds and FRNs, gaining market share for Asset Backed Securities and for Sovereign, Supranational and Agencies. The survey included ESG investing for the first time, and CBA ranked second for most measures including preferred provider, investment opportunities and support.
