Possibly hoping to demonstrate an ongoing need for a government guarantee, Westpac last week undertook the largest government-guaranteed bond issue in the US s144A market yet. Westpac raised US$3.5 billion for five years, evenly split between fixed and floating rate tranches, priced at just 28 basis points over swap/Libor. This is also the tightest pricing achieved in that market to date, with the closest comparison being Westpac's US$1.2 billion, July 2014 FRN, which priced at Libor plus 48 bps in July. The only comparable unguaranteed issuance into that market was also from Westpac. Westpac issued US$1.5 billion of bonds with a February 2015 maturity less than two weeks earlier. These bonds priced at 175 bps over US Treasuries, as reported last week. The fixed rate tranche of this latest guaranteed issue priced at 65.7 bps over US Treasuries, more than compensating for the 70 bps guarantee fee.Westpac has also filed to undertake a New Zealand dollar denominated, four-year, Uridashi issue on September 17. The size of the government-guaranteed issue is yet to be determined and the coupon will be set between 4.3 per cent and 5.3 per cent.In other offshore issuance, the CBA raised US$300 million for four years in the Euromarket, priced at mid-swaps plus 75 bps, without a government guarantee. Allowing for a euro/Australian dollar basis swap of around 45 bps, the pricing on the deal does not compare well to its domestic issue.GE Capital Australia Funding (rated AA+) returned to the Euromarket on Friday night with a A$200 million top-up to its September 2014 medium-term note issue.