Since the Commonwealth Bank took to the ASX to raise its PERLS securities in 2001, the merits of investing in bank hybrids have been hotly debated. The lure of high fully franked distributions from trusted banking institutions made them an easy sell for brokers.

Over the years the big banks have paid anywhere between 2 per cent and 4.5 per cent above the cash rate to raise money from investors via hybrids. That’s a decent pick-up for betting on the continued health of Australian banks.