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JPMorgan held preliminary meetings last Wednesday with a select group of investors in preparation for the syndication of the $4 billion term loan "B" backing the $11.4 billion leveraged buyout of SunGard by a club of blue-chip buyout shops.

International Index Co. is launching its iBoxx U.S. Dollar Bond Indices in response to investor demand for a neutral family of bond indices and is going head to head with existing providers of dollar-denominated indices such as Lehman Brothers and Citigroup.

West Gate Advisors, a subsidiary of Metropolitan West Asset Management (MWAM), has bought ING Capital Advisors, concluding an auction that began last December.

Citigroup will have to pay £13.9m, the second largest fine ever levied by the UK's Financial Services Authority, for its controversial Eu12.9bn euro zone government bond trade last August.

Merrill Lynch is gearing up for its first trade in the fledgling U.K. property derivatives market.

Morgan Stanley and SG Corporate and Investment Banking are pitching structured credit deals featuring constant proportion portfolio insurance, joining a growing group of firms in Europe.

"You have to understand the Greeks because if you don't, those Greeks are going to bite you in the butt."--

SG Corporate and Investment Banking last week closed a EUR70 million (USD84 million), 10-year synthetic portfolio of highly-rated U.S. asset backed securities.

The Royal Bank of Scotland has appointed Farzin Pourmokhtar, a manager in principal and global structured credit at Bank of America in London, as head of product management in its U.K. structured credit and equity products group.

Market players were lapping up short-dated sterling puts last week as the currency fell to an eight-month low against the U.S. dollar and the market reacted to poor U.K. economic data.

Buy- and sell-siders came together at the New York Marriott Eastside Hotel last week for Finance IQ's Structured Products For Wealth Management conference.

U.S. dealers have started adding fund of hedge funds to multi-asset class best-of baskets, in a step on from referencing against just single stocks.