How do you split a $15 billion odd auto leasing and finance book - and which bits do you decide to sell?

That's the question Westpac Banking Group and its new adviser Morgan Stanley are believed to be grappling with, as the bank gets cracking on preparations to sell a $5 billion chunk of loans in an effort to free up capital.

While sources stress the deliberations are in the consideration stage - and Westpac has made no decision to push ahead with a sale - financial institutions group bankers and tyrekickers are preparing for the auction to launch later this year once funders, bankers, tyrekickers and the like have moved on from ANZ Banking Group's time-intensive wealth carve out.

Westpac is believed to be reviewing about a $5 billion auto leasing book, which is housed within a larger auto and equipment finance book.

Sources said the larger loanbook was worth about $15 billion, and included close to $5 billion in loans picked up from the Lloyds acquisition two years ago and the old St George auto book, worth another $10 billion.

The auto finance loans are all part of Westpac's business bank, which had $154 billion in loans outstanding as at March 31. Last year's financial report made little mention of the portfolio, other than to say there had been some growth and provisions in the book had also increased.

Westpac is expected to have a decision on whether or not to push ahead with an auction in coming months. However, its decision to recruit Morgan Stanley's investment bankers to help with the review, as Street Talk revealed on Tuesday, has market watchers expecting a deal of some description.

It comes as Westpac looks for ways to free up capital and meet the prudential regulator's capital targets well ahead of the January 2020 deadline.

Westpac had a tier one capital ratio of 10 per cent as at March 31, its most recent half-yearly reporting date, while APRA wants to see the banks get to at least 10.5 per cent.

Elsewhere, Goldman Sachs has been active in the recruitment market hiring five new executive directors for its Australian investment banking team.

The bank has picked up UBS media banker Adrian Lee to work for Zac Fletcher in investment banking services, as well as UBS financial institutions group banker Andrew Buchanan and the Swiss bank's Joe Hunt to join Goldman's capital products group.

The Wall Street giant also picked up Guillaume Lehinque from Gresham Partners for its consumer/retail banking team, while Standard Chartered's Hugh Stephenson joined the bank's real estate unit, as Street Talk first reported on Tuesday.

All five bankers were hired as executive directors.

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Global law firm Pinsent Masons has raided Norton Rose Fulbright's local ranks, securing four partners. 

Street Talk can reveal the UK-based firm will open an office in Perth after luring Norton Rose construction and infrastructure partner Adrienne Parker. She will join Norton Rose partners Matthew Croagh, Bill Ryan and Rob Buchanan in making the leap to Pinsent. 

The four partners - who are said to start in January -  have significant experience in the infrastructure, construction and engineering sectors, including mergers and acquisitions, disputes and procurement.

The raid bolsters Pinsent's local partner numbers to 13. The firm has about 60 staff in Australia, excluding the hires, after opening its doors here two years ago.

Pinsent is headed in Australia by David Rennick who held a town hall late on Tuesday, sources said.

The raid is another blow to Norton Rose as partners continue to decamp ahead of the completion of a merger with Henry Davis York.

Partners that have already left for other firms this year include Nigel Deed, Michael Park, Joshua Paffey and Michael Joyce. Two others have resigned and will leave the building shortly. 

Norton Rose Australia managing partner Wayne Spanner told this column in light of the planned merger: "Some people will want to adopt a different course... This sort of thing is a common occurrence in mergers."

Norton Rose has made several hires in an attempt to restock including partners Martin Irwin and Adam Edelman

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American health care giant UnitedHealth Group has spent some time getting to know Australia's private health insurers, and industry watchers are waiting to see what happens next. 

Street Talk understands UnitedHealth Group, which has a $US185 billion market capitalisation and provides health insurance for about 30 million Americans, has taken time to meet major players in local private health insurance over the past six months as part of a wider fact finding mission. 

Should UnitedHealth want to enter the Australian market in a material fashion, it will have to decide whether to build or buy.

If it wants to buy, the two biggest incumbents are BUPA and Medibank Private which both have 26.9 per cent market share according to IBISWorld. The next biggest are HCF (11.4 per cent), NIB Holdings (6.7 per cent) and HBF Health (5.9 per cent). 

Neither of the two big players is expected to be available for sale, although that could change when the ASX-listed Medibank is freed from takeover restrictions in November 2019. [When Medibank was floated in November 2014, investors were prevented from owning more than 15 per cent of the company during its first five years on the bourse.] 

It means Medibank chief executive Craig Drummond has about two years to get his company's house in order, before it could become an option for UnitedHealth or any other would-be suitor. 

Medibank has been under some pressure in recent months, with sell-side brokers and fund managers worried about market share losses and that Australia's ageing population will take its toll on the insurer's profits. Of the major brokers, more are telling clients to sell than buy. 

Medibank's believers reckon there is a good story to tell; it's just a matter of turning around some of the sceptics. 

Perhaps the most digestible bit is Medibank's potential for capital management. The company held 13.7 per cent of next year's estimated revenue in health insurance capital as at December 31, which was towards the top of management's 12 per cent to 14 per cent target and well above the 12.7 per cent per cent as at June 30 last year. It wouldn't surprise to see that number above the 14 per cent mark when Medibank releases full-year results on August 25. 

Of course Medibank - like its rivals - is still waiting on the prudential regulator to formalise capital requirements, which could still be some way off. Once APRA moves, Medibank shareholders will be asking for capital management via buybacks or increased dividends.

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It's a busy time in the fintech and marketplace lending industry as a raft of players look to step up their financing efforts.

Street Talk understands the The Aura High Yield SME Fund has made its maiden investment by providing a revolving loan facility to fintech company Banjo Loans. That comes as ASX-listed marketplace lender DirectMoney is set to announce -  as early as Wednesday - a new wholesale funding agreement with 255 Finance, a subsidiary of Challenger.

The $20 million facility from Aura will assist Banjo's loan book growth for lending to businesses, an area the major banks are pulling back from at the smaller end. 

Banjo was founded by NAB's former business performance in corporate, institutional and specialised banking boss Andrew Colliver, along withformer colleagues.

The new facility, alongside a senior one provided by a bank, will deliver Banjo a lending capacity of more than $100 million.

The Aura SME fund is targeting more than $100 million in funds under management. It focuses on marketplace and peer-to peer lenders who lend to SMEs. 

Meanwhile, Challenger subsidiary 255 Finance has agreed to buy $50 million of DirectMoney's existing and future loans. The fintech has a similar deal with Macquarie Group, which bought $5 million of its loans in March last year and owns about 7.6 per cent of its equity.

DirectMoney has, however, had it tough since its ASX listing in 2015 at 20¢ per share. The stock dropped to just 1¢ in September after it struggled to find enough retail investors to back its loans. The shares are languishing at 3¢.

A new CEO, Anthony Nantes, the former operating chief of online business lender Prospa, joined in late 2016, along with new board members. 

The new management team has spent six months trying to attract a cornerstone institutional funding partner and it's hoped Challenger will increase its commitment, if demand for loans picks up. 

The proliferation of fintech lending businesses in Australia has been well documented. But earlier this year, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims said the impact of fintech on the banking industry had been a disappointment, as it hadn't made a dent in the dominance of the big four. 

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If there is one thing capital markets bankers and lawyers can talk about for days, it is equity raising structures. 

But when it comes to the punch, directors of top-50 companies with a good raising story to tell have only one option if they want to "pass the AGM test", bankers say. 

And it is the PAITREO - a renounceable pre-rata entitlement offer with rights trading for retail shareholders. 

Transurban Group is one company that seems to get the message. 

You can bet its board is thinking PAITREO should the company tap the equity markets for development projects including the $3.5 billion to $4 billion West Gate Tunnel project and should it be successful in seeking to buy NSW's WestConnex roads project. 

Chief executive Scott Charlton didn't shy away from the potential equity requirements on Tuesday, telling analysts that his board had taken a conservative approach to its balance sheet in the past and asked securityholders to chip in to fund growth projects. 

And he said he couldn't see any reason why it would be different this time around, even if Transurban may be able to fund something like West Gate using only debt.

Which, in Charlton's words, make it more likely than not that Transurban will come to market at some point. 

The question is just a matter of when and for how much. 

The PAITREO is widely seen as the most friendly raising structure for retail shareholders, who have the option of selling their right to new shares soon after the deal is announced. 

Transurban last used the structure in November 2015 when it raised $1.025 billion to buy Brisbane's AirportLinkM7. 

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