Rob Nicholls, who helped source the $300 billion for programs such as JobKeeper, is leaving the Australian Office of Financial Management

But the AOFM had started to spread its wings long before the pandemic.

Australia’s appeal

When Mr Nicholl joined the Canberra-based agency in 2011, there were $175 billion of government bonds on issue, or a quarter of today’s volume.

“The AOFM went from having a handful of central banks investing reserves in Australia to over 100 with African central banks buying the bonds,” Mr Coote said. “He increased the investor base and that’s not an easy task. [Rob] and his team would have been partially responsible for getting people investing in Australia.”

Helping that funding task is Australia’s pristine triple-A rating assigned by the major ratings agencies, as well as a stable financial and regulatory environment.

More than half of today’s public debt is held by Australians, with 45 per cent in the hands of foreign investors across Asia, Europe and North America.

“It’s going to be a big loss to Australia and now there are big shoes to fill,” Mr Coote said. “He leaves a very big legacy.”

Mr Johnson said another AOFM achievement under Mr Nicholl’s leadership was the lengthening of the government debt profile through the introduction of longer-dated maturities, bringing Australia in line with its peers.

“We went from a 10-year to a mature 30-year bond which became popular with investors,” Mr Johnson said.

Just as importantly, Mr Nicholl was committed to issuing short-dated debt such as bills. “It may not be as cost-effective, but it is very handy to have, particularly at a time of a shock.”

Open mind

Born in country Victoria, Mr Nicholl is praised for his inclusive leadership style. A financial intermediary who did not want to be named said the AOFM belongs to the type of institutions that are generally very conservative and promote staff from within.

“On the back of his open approach, he got a big uplift of information from the market. He bought a new level of professionalism,” the person said.

“No other central borrowing authority in the country has ever had to raise that much funding and his leadership has been rewarded by this next role that he’s taking on.” The person added that the IMF job was extremely competitive and “an absolute honour”.

Mr Nicholl opened many overseas managers’ eyes to the niche world of domestic residential mortgage-backed securities.

“He did an exemplary job in a changing environment,” said Chris Dalton, chief executive of the Australian Securitisation Forum.

The AOFM invited Mr Dalton to participate in investor roadshows in Tokyo to promote investment in the Australian fixed income markets. “[Rob] has not only been effective in managing the government’s balance sheet, but also recognising that international investors should have an interest in sectors such as the residential mortgage-backed securities market.”

International investors are regular buyers of such instruments.

Before the AOFM, Mr Nicholl was a senior executive at the Tasmanian Treasury and Department of Infrastructure, Energy and Resources. He also worked as a senior adviser to the Tasmanian deputy premier at the time. He spent several years in academia as a research fellow and lecturing in economics.

He will finish at the AOFM about mid-September before heading to Washington DC, a city he knows well, having spent 18 months there in the 1980s during Ronald Reagan’s presidency.

His replacement will be nominated by the Australian Treasury and coincides with a number of top government roles also up for grabs. Wayne Byres, chairman of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, resigned last week.