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Laurent Sroussi, managing director and U.S. deputy head of sales and marketing at SG Corporate & Investment Banking in New York, has left after spending more than a decade with the firm across the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Structurers of synthetic collateralized debt obligations referencing asset-backed securities have begun to look further down the ABS capital structure to include mezzanine notes instead of only referencing AAA and AA rated assets.

Guidelines for insurance companies issued last month by the Financial Services Authority, the U.K. regulator, could make funds reluctant to enter derivatives that would be costly to unwind.

The price of credit default protection on Volkswagen tightened last week despite poor first-half results and a profit warning from Standard & Poor's. This is largely because the market had already priced in poor figures, according to traders.

Wachovia Securities plans to offer its first hedge fund-linked trades this month in the U.S., following the recent hire of a hedge fund-linked structuring team.

Transport for London, the double-A rated local government body charged with managing London?s transport system, is likely to issue up to £3bn of debt over the next five years.

Nomura International has lured 13 equity derivatives professionals from Merrill Lynch in London as part of its efforts to build a presence in the City under Joachim Willnow, managing director who himself recently joined from Merrill.

Jeff Thomas, senior director in leveraged finance origination and execution at Royal Bank of Scotland in London, has joined Bank of America in London on the leveraged finance origination team.

The difficulty in finding attractive asset-backed and leveraged loan securities for inclusion in CDOs is prompting some managers to consider rotating underwriters.

Merganser Capital Management plans to add corporates in the coming months to its $300 million core fixed-income portfolio.

Gordon Woodward, a principal with Kohlberg & Co., on the decision to tap Goldman to lead the financing backing the acquisition of Stanadyne Corp.