(by Mark Riley)

Last week, Wells Fargo & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. were the first in selling bonds having the total of $21.7 billion of bonds sold in the U.S.

New York-based Goldman Sachs, the U.S. third-biggest securities firm, sold $1.25 billion of 10-year fixed-rate notes and $900 million of 10-year floating rate notes. Wells Fargo, the U.S. No.4 bank based in San Francisco, sold $3.5 billion of three-year floating-rate notes.

The U.S. banks and securities firms were lured to issue debt as borrowing costs saw their lowest within five months level. Last week, the yield on A rated financial bonds fell to as low as 4.08%. “Financial borrowers are the first ones in when borrowing costs are low,” said Stephen Mahoney, portfolio manager at Glenmede Trust Co. in Philadelphia.

Treasury securities three-month rally allowed financial companies to gain profits from it with the situation when the benchmark of 10-year note’s yield fell down to 4% from 4.87%.

Goldman Sachs priced $1.25 billion of 5% notes with the maturity date in 2014 to yield 103 basis points more than Treasuries and $900 million of floating- rate notes at 60 basis points over London interbank. The company is rated Aa3 by Moody’s Investors Service and A+ by Standard & Poor’s.

Wells Fargo priced floating-rate notes to yield 6 basis points over the rate of London interbank. The company is rated Aa1 by Moody’s Investors Service and AA- by Standard & Poor’s.