Domestic corporate bond issuance at the end of January totalled A$7.625 billion, which is comfortably ahead of the A$7.265 billion issued in the same month last year and sets a new January issuance record. However, this should not be considered an indicator of another year of record issuance volumes.The composition of the issuance is very different between the two years. The issuance seen in January 2009 came solely from the domestic banks and was all government guaranteed. This was the result of being in the depths of the GFC and the banks were desperate to raise funds wherever they could.Just one year later, the situation is vastly different: Bank of Queensland was the only domestic bank issuer and the Australian branch of Rabobank, the only other local issuer. Supranationals and agencies accounted for A$6.25 billion of the bonds issued. This is the result of a favourable basis swap and strong demand from international investors for Australian dollar denominated assets. Bank liquidity book buying also helped.The supranational and agency issuance is a new monthly record and may well set the tone for the year but it is not a monthly record for kangaroo issuance. The record for monthly kangaroo issuance stands at A$6.65 billion and was set in February 2007, when the likes of Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Citigroup were active issuers in the Australian market.