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Bear Stearns has hired Onno Vleeshouwe, an interest rate salesman at WestLB, and Didier Sander, a euro swaps trader at Calyon, as managing directors.

Contrary to widespread opinion, the price of loans in the secondary market before and after a default gives a better indication of ultimate loan recovery rates than bond or credit-default swap prices do of their recoveries.

Credit Suisse First Boston and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein are structuring funds that give European retail investors exposure to hedge funds.

Equity correlation swaps, which have been dismissed by some as an investment bank gimmick for disposing of their own correlation risk, are becoming established as a product in their own right, according to broker GFI Group.

Options on the euro/Swiss franc currency pair were the focus of intense speculation last week, centered around last Thursday's 25 basis point interest-rate hike by the Swiss National Bank.

Simon Park, managing director in investment-grade trading at Goldman Sachs in New York, has left the firm and is believed to be moving to a similar role at UBS in Stamford, Conn.

In our continuing effort to grow and improve our credit businesses we have decided to merge our cash credit trading and credit derivative ("GCD") businesses globally to form one overall credit trading umbrella that includes investment grade, emerging markets and high yield.

Harris Nesbitt has hired three professionals for its high-yield sales and trading business in New York, as first reported last week on BW's website.

Investec Asset Management will reduce exposure to high-yield and emerging market bonds in its Global High Income Bond Fund if volatility increases as the Federal Reserve raises interest rates.

Italian issuers anticipate replacing a large portion of their residential mortgage-backed securitization with covered bond issuance once a legal framework is in place in Italy, which optimists expect by the end of this year.

Fore... While many loan participants took time out to visit Shinnecock Hills Golf Club to watch Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh compete in the U.S. open, others set out to emulate the pros.