National Australia Bank launched a 10 year Australian dollar issue today (Monday), its first in the maturity, with the deal not expected to be adversely effected by the Ukraine crisis and possibly even set to benefit marginally, said a lead syndicate banker.

Sole lead NAB has been marketing the deal with initial price thoughts of the 80s over mid-swaps, with more than A$500m (Eu324m) of orders collected so far, according to the syndicate official.

“We’re comfortable with that,” he said.

The deal is NAB’s first domestic 10 year covered bond, with supply from its peers in that maturity trading in the mid to high 70s over, pointing to a new issue concession in the low single-digits, according to the syndicate banker.

The deal is due to be priced tomorrow (Tuesday) and as a low beta product is not expected to be adversely affected by the tension over Ukraine, he added, instead potentially marginally benefitting from a flight to quality.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia has postponed a US dollar senior unsecured transaction until tomorrow given the political developments in Crimea, noted the syndicate banker, saying that this made sense but was not considered necessary for NAB’s transaction given the asset class and domestic focus.