Foreign debt markets have proved accommodating to Australian bank borrowers in the new year.Over the first three weeks of January 2014, banks sold the equivalent of A$11.3 billion of bonds in international markets. Three of Australia's four major banks emulated their kangaroo and kauri counterparts by issuing AAA-rated covered bonds in the Euromarket.ANZ was the first off the mark, raising €1.25 billion for 10 years at a margin of just 36 basis points over mid-swaps. This is the first ten-year covered bond issue in the Euromarket by one of the major banks since NAB raised €1.0 billion, at 37 bps over mid-swaps, in December 2012.Commonwealth Bank followed ANZ within a day, to raise €1.0 billion by selling five-year covered bonds, priced at mid-swaps plus 18 bps. On Friday, CBA tapped the sterling market with a £350 million, four-year covered bond issue priced at 35 bps over mid-swaps. Earlier last week, NAB sold five-year covered bonds at a spread flat to mid-swaps. NAB raised 200 million Swiss francs and achieved better pricing than some larger Swiss issuers of covered bonds.The tight pricing was attributed to the high regard in which NAB is held in the Swiss franc market and the restricted volume of bonds on offer.Unsecured bond issuance was also led by ANZ (AA-), which sold US$1.8 billion of three-year bonds in the US144A market in the first full week of January. The fixed and floating rate bonds were priced at 38 bps over swap/Libor.Westpac (AA-) followed last week with a US$1.5 billion issue of five year bonds in the same market, priced at 61 bps over.And NAB hit the Samurai market to sell a total of ¥128.3 billion of bonds with maturities ranging from three to ten years. The bonds were priced at margins of 3 bps to 10 bps over swap/Libor. The proceeds should convert to about A$1.32 billion.Swiss francs were also popular for unsecured issuance.CBA (AA-) and NAB (AA-) sold CHF200 million of eight and 10-year bonds respectively, both paying coupons of 1.5 per cent per annum. And, across the Ditch, BNZ (AA-) sold CHF200 million of seven year bonds, paying a coupon of 1.375 per cent, and ASB (AA-) sold CHF150 million of six year bonds with a 1.125 per cent coupon.