(Bloomberg) -- Australia’s financial regulator is pushing ahead to become the first country to phase out its banks’ use of contingent convertible securities that were wiped out at Credit Suisse last year.
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority said Monday that after consulting with market participants, it will proceed to replace Additional Tier 1 capital instruments with what should be cheaper and more reliable forms of capital to absorb losses more effectively in times of stress. APRA, which initially announced the plan in September, will finalize changes before the end of next year, with the updated framework coming into effect from January 2027.
“Feedback was generally supportive of APRA’s proposal, with most respondents agreeing that AT1 does not meet the regulatory objectives of stabilizing a bank experiencing financial stress or supporting resolution to prevent a disorderly failure,” according to the statement.
AT1 bonds were introduced in the aftermath of the global financial crisis to prevent taxpayers from picking up the cost for a bank’s failure, but the unusually high proportion of Australian retail investors in such debt has led to questions around their effectiveness Down Under. Internationally, they are the lowest rung of bank debt and became controversial after $17 billion of the securities were completely written off when UBS Group AG rescued Credit Suisse in 2023.
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Analysts including those at S&P Global Ratings have argued, however, that regulators in other jurisdictions are unlikely to follow Australia’s lead, given restrictions on selling the riskier debt to individuals in other markets.
The Australian market for AT1s is worth roughly A$40 billion ($26 billion). Australia’s big four banks each hold AT1 bonds equal to at least 1.5% of their risk-weighted assets. Under the new guidelines, they will be able to replace those bonds with 1.25% Tier 2 capital and 0.25% common equity Tier 1 capital. Smaller lenders would be able to fully replace AT1 with Tier 2 instruments, which typically have simpler structures and bail-in rules.
As a tool, AT1s haven’t been shown to act effectively in helping lenders avoid failure and don’t provide advantages over Tier 2 notes in a resolution scenario, according to the regulator. Eliminating AT1s will help simplify the capital framework of Australian banks, it said Monday.
AT1s notes are typically designed to convert to shares when a bank’s common equity ratio falls to a trigger point, but reliance on such assessments are backward looking and a lender is likely to become non-viable before the trigger is reached, according to APRA.
Still, AT1s usually offer investors higher yields to compensate for their additional risks and can generate strong returns in good times.
“Some submissions did raise concerns with phasing out AT1, noting a range of impacts including investors losing access to AT1 as an investable product,” according to the regulator. “APRA acknowledges these concerns but remains of the view that AT1 does not do effectively what it is intended to do: absorb losses while the bank is a going concern and support resolution.”
(Corrects type of bond in the caption of the main image.)
(Updates with details of AT1 usage in other markets.)
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