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The first quarter is now behind us and, it must be said, the performance from the corporate sector during the quarter has been disappointing.

Gartmore Investment Management is looking to add to its positions in subordinate bank and insurance debt.

Asset-backed issuers are increasingly slicing and dicing the classes of the securities they sell to make them better appeal to investors at a time when volumes continue to set new highs.

Changing spaces. . . Bank of America's new trading floor in the Hearst Tower in Charlotte has been winning rave reviews from the architecture critics.

OppenheimerFunds, with $11 billion under management, is considering upping its holdings of corporates to take advantage of recent spread widening.

New issuance was high last week, with a lot of smaller deals and a handful of large offerings in the market.

Michael Epstein, a principal at turnaround and crisis management firm TRG, explaining the benefits of using distressed debt to invest in companies for the long-term.

Spreads on collateralized debt obligations in the secondary market were a hot topic at the European Securitisation Forum's conference in Geneva last week, as panelists discussed whether secondary paper still offers any value to new issue deals.

State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) is planning to reduce its exposure to floating-rate bonds in its $6 billion asset-backed securities portfolio.

A trio of investment-grade corporate traders that are considered the crown jewel within UBS' principal finance unit have left the firm and one observer said they could resurface in the hedge fund world.

Managing directors in exotic credit trading and credit structuring at top tier investment banks made about £1.625m on average last year ? about £1m after tax ? according to a salary survey of the debt capital markets by recruitment consultancy Napier Scott. That figure would typically mean a basic salary of £125,000 and £1.5m of bonuses. Top producers, of course, will have made many times more.