Commonwealth Bank appears to have decided to spurn the recent consensus (which may be no more than an investor fad) that banks are supposed to have tier one capital ratios of at least eight per cent.And indeed CBA has put to the sword the view that Australia's banks cannot readily borrow in offshore debt markets in the current climate unless their one capital ratio exceeds that magic number.Insto Bond Diary yesterday reported that CBA on Tuesday launched and priced a government guaranteed ¥17 billion, five-year bond issue, and thus the first guaranteed issue by an Australian bank. CBA upsized that yesterday to ¥20 billion. Insto did not report the pricing.Commonwealth did, however, yesterday announce plans to sell $750 million in new shares, but only in order to redeem some hybrid capital in March 2009, and CBA won't seek to raise the money until some time in January. Merrill Lynch agreed to buy the shares from CBA with pricing to be set in January.That capital raising will lift CBA's tier one ratio to 7.8 per cent from 7.5 per cent.CBA also said it would sell $500 million in shares under a retail offer in February following publication of the bank's half-year results, which would then lift the capital ratio to eight per cent.Elsewhere on the term debt front Westpac on Tuesday night followed ANZ and sold $1.5 billion in term debt into the US private placement market, according to Goldman Sachs JB Were. The pricing was in line with the ANZ pricing reported yesterday.