An overview of the Australian corporate bond market

It was only relatively recently that a well-functioning corporate bond market emerged in Australia. Until the early 1990s, the domestic bond market was largely confined to government borrowers. While a small number of large financial and non-financial borrowers occasionally issued bonds into the domestic market, for the most part they found it easier to source longer-term debt funding through overseas bond markets. Other businesses relied on bank finance and the equity market as their main sources of long-term external funds.