Commonwealth Bank of Australia increases EMTN Programme to US$10 Billion

Commonwealth Bank of Australia today announced it has increased the size of its Euro Medium Term Note Programme from US$5 billion to US$10 billion. It has also made some changes to the dealer panel - J P Morgan has been added as dealer, while Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers have been dropped.

Dealers on the programme are Merrill Lynch International, Nomura International, J P Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, UBS Warburg and Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Head of Group Funding at the Commonwealth Bank Group, John te Wechel, said: "This is our flagship programme for fundraising in the international markets. Since its establishment in 1992, well over 200 deals have been issued under it in a wide range of currencies, structures and maturities. The increase in limit is a prudent measure designed to give the Group additional flexibility in achieving its funding requirements in coming years.

"The changes in the dealer panel reflect a desire to recognise and reward performance and reinforce the importance of continued flow of cost effective structured products."

Commonwealth Bank of Australia is rated AA- (positive outlook) by Standard & Poor’s, Aa3 (positive outlook) by Moody’s and AA by Fitch.