InAssociation hosted the Australian Debt Markets Conference on Friday, 27 June 2008 at the Westin Hotel in Sydney - supported by the Australian Bankers' Association. Thank you to all our speakers, sponsors and attendees at the event. Presentations are available for download here.

Ahmed Fahour of the National Australia Bank provided the opening keynote address, providing insight into the changed global banking conditions and ideas on how the Australian banking and finance sector can continue to adapt and evolve. The outlook for the Australian banking sector remains strong, however vulnerable to global shocks affecting the global costs of funding. One comment was that "making deposits more attractive by giving them enhanced tax treatment could reduce our reliance on overseas money".

The panel on asset-backed securities revealed positive signs, with discussion about the few recent deals to market and spreads starting to come into narrower levels. There is the expectation of further RMBS and auto-backed deals in the year, as issuers are said to be in a heightened state of readiness for issuance.

The room of leading debt markets players also heard from Charles Littrell from APRA on the lessons learnt in the past year, with indications that the regulator would be reviewing and tightening some rules. Guy Debelle of the RBA detailed the central bank's open market operations, particularly with reference to operations during the credit turmoil from mid-2007.

Investors are keen to drive change in the debt markets, seeing the unwinding of market leverage as an opportunity to implement fundamental change in the quality of documentation and transparency. The panel of investors have found issuers to be more accommodating following the period of credit market turmoil, and expressed an appetite for investments with simple structures to which they can apply modelling.

Submit your feedback or enquiries here. Thanks again to all participants and the event; we look forward to bringing you to the Australian Debt Markets Conference in 2009.