The syndicated and club loan market in Australia and New Zealand - and indeed much of the Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) - has come to a grinding halt, based on Thomson Reuters year to date APAC statistics. The data shows 73 deals were closed by the end of February, with slightly over half the funding allocated to mergers or refinancing previous corporate loans. The total syndicated loan volume committed by the end of February was US$21.7 billion, marking one of the slowest starts in a decade. Digging deeper, "northeast Asia" - dominated by China - accounted for US$19.6 billion of the total volume, with south and southeast Asia and Australasia barely registering activity (US$1.4 billion from seven deals; and US700 million from four deals, respectively). The APAC (ex-Japan) mandated loan arranger league table for 2018 YTD shows only one Australian bank - ANZ, at number seven- in the top 20. Thomson Reuters data shows refinancing of loans for China-linked companies will top US$55 billion in 2018, and around US$45 billion and US$49 billion will mature in 2019 and 2020, respectively. The APAC loan pipeline volume at the end of February reflects this, sitting almost US$30 billion higher than at the same time last year.