欧洲央行把储蓄利率降到负数的决定意味着澳洲银行的融资成本达到金融危机以来的最低点，这能使他们增加利润或者降低房贷利率。
澳新银行集团周一晚在纽约向美国投资者融资22.5亿美元。他们以1.25％的利率购买面值为75万美元的三年的定期债券，这比美国政府的三年国债债券的利率高了40个点。
欧洲央行的决定是为了阻止英国和美国的金融机构把盈余资金放在欧元区，这会推高欧元，打击出口。
这个决定意味着英国和美国的投资者可能会跟随日本投资者的脚步，把盈余资金用来购买回报更高的澳元证券。
澳洲的银行对金融市场忽然充满便宜的流动资产反应很快。西太银行集团于上周以金融危机以来最便宜的回报率出售了价值25亿的住宅按揭抵押证券。Macquarie集团，ING银行以及澳新集团也有类似举动。
融资的低成本以及资金的充足性将加剧澳洲房贷市场的竞争。
上个月，澳大利亚审慎监管局担心银行为了在激烈的竞争中争取市场份额而降低借贷门槛，就银行应如何监控和管理他们的抵押贷款风险而发布了新的严格的管理规定。
Cheaper mortgages could be on way
The European Central Bank's decision to push interest rates into negative territory is allowing Australian banks to borrow more cheaply than at any time since the financial crisis and is likely to increase their profits or cut homeowners' mortgage costs.
ANZ Banking Group raised $US2.25 billion ($2.4 billion) from US investors in New York on Monday night. The bank is paying 1.25 per cent for $US750,000 in three-year fixed notes, a margin of 40 basis points above benchmark three-year US government bonds.
The ECB's move was aimed at discouraging major US and UK financial institutions from parking surplus funds in the euro zone, which pushes the region's currency higher and makes exports less competitive.
The decision to impose negative interest rates means that big US and UK financial institutions will likely follow the lead of Japanese investors in hoovering up high-yielding Australian securities, including bank debt.
Australia's banks have been quick to capitalise on the abundant and cheap liquidity sloshing around financial markets. Last week, Westpac Banking Corp sold $2.5 billion of residential mortgage-backed securities at the lowest yields since the financial crisis.
Macquarie Group sold $1.035 billion of asset-based securities – mainly Australian car and equipment loans and leases – which was the largest and cheapest such deal since the financial crisis. ING Bank Australia also sold a $1.25 billion RMBS deal.
ANZ also raised $US1.25 billion in five-year fixed rate debt, paying 2.25 per cent, or 60 basis points above benchmark five-year US government bonds and $250,000 in three-year floating rate debt, on which it paid 26 basis points above the 3-month benchmark rate.
The easy availability of cheap funding could exacerbate the already bruising battle for market share in the country's home loan market.
Last month, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, which is worried that banks are dropping lending standards in the fierce battle for market share, issued tough new guidelines on how banks should monitor and manage their mortgage risks.
APRA chairman John Laker warned that against the backdrop of rising house prices and strong competition,
"APRA is seeing increasing evidence of lending with higher-risk characteristics and it does not want this trend to continue."
The ECB's decision to cut its key interest rate means that Australian bonds are likely to remain in favour with offshore investors, which will keep upward pressure on the local currency.
Investors can earn a yield of 3.78 per cent on 10-year Australian bonds, which is one of only 11 countries boasting a triple-A credit rating, compared with 1.4 per cent on comparable German bonds and 1.7 per cent on French 10-year bonds.
Although Australia's banks will welcome lower rates, German savings banks and insurance companies have been campaigning against the ECB's interest rate cuts, prompting Germany's powerful Bundesbank to spend the past fortnight providing background briefings to German reporters explaining the need for lower rates.
Earlier this month German savings banks and insurance companies warned a cut in interest rates would hurt savers. German life companies are also opposed to low interest rates because some have sold products with guaranteed returns of around 4 per cent – well above the 1.4 per cent return on 10-year German bonds. Germany's finance minister is planning measures to support life insurers struggling to meet guaranteed returns to clients in the face of low interest rates.
The voracious appetite for Australian debt has seen the Australian credit default swap index, which insures holders of corporate bonds against non-payment, drop below 80 points for the first time since 2010.
Extremely loose monetary policy by the world's major central banks has stifled volatility in global markets, with the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index (known as the VIX) from the start of April through to last week falling to its lowest level for a full quarter since the first three months of 2007.
HSBC Australia chief economist Paul Bloxham said "globally, the fact that central banks continue to keep monetary policy very loose – and the Europeans have entered into new territory in terms of unconventional policy – is making the cost of capital lower for banks.
"And that's what it's supposed to do. It's supposed to make monetary conditions in these countries – and globally – easier."
Australian banks need to raise about $100 billion a year in wholesale markets, about half of which is raised offshore.Lower funding costs will benefit both the major and the regional banks, and reduce the pressure on them to offer attractive interest rates to lure local deposits.
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