“If we’re delivering real benefits that can only be good for the industry,” says Oliver.

Since 2008 three foreign investment banks have become significant players in Australian bond markets: Barclays, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Nomura. They have provided competition to the bond desks at Australia’s four biggest banks and US banks such as Citigroup and Morgan Stanley as well as Switzerland’s UBS.

AMP and Colonial remain the biggest Australian fixed-income asset managers while UBS, Pimco and Aberdeen round out the top five bond fund managers, says Dear.

“There is more money being allocated to bonds, new entrants and the expansion of existing teams,” he says.