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--Mark Steinman, executive v.p. and cfo of Stelco, a Canadian steel producer, on extending its credit facility

This chart, provided by Citibank/Salomon Smith Barney Inc., tracks bid-ask prices for par credit facilities that trade in the secondary market. It also tracks facility amounts, ratings, pricing and maturities.

BondWeek is the leading news publication for fixed-income professionals, covering new deals, structures, asset-backed securities, industry and market activity.

BondWeek is the leading news publication for fixed-income professionals, covering new deals, structures, asset-backed securities, industry and market activity.

BondWeek is the leading news publication for fixed-income professionals, covering new deals, structures, asset-backed securities, industry and market activity.

Barclays Capital has hired Philip Metcalf, former head of derivatives marketing and structuring at Abbey National Financial Products in Hong Kong, as a director in the strategic solutions group in Tokyo. Jonathan Williams, spokesman in Tokyo, said Metcalf joined in a new role to cover the Japanese market.

Structurers of true sale collateralized debt obligations in the U.S. are attempting to stem losses from interest rate hedges, which have moved out of the money since the deals' inception. The fixed-to-floating interest rate hedges were executed between 1997-2000 and are siphoning premium from senior note holders toward swap counterparties, said CDO pros. Swap losses have also contributed to many structures being downgraded, they added.

Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein has hired Chris Koppenheffer, former U.S. dollar swaps trader at RBS Greenwich Capital, to head the firm's U.S. dollar swaps trading desk in New York. Koppenheffer said he is excited by the new role and hopes to expand the desk's business. Since Koppenheffer departed RBS Greenwich earlier this year the firm has hired two ABN AMRO professionals for similar roles, according to Doug Greenig, managing director and head of derivative products and agency mortgage trading in Greenwich, Conn. Steven Mullaney joined to head the U.S. dollar swaps trading activity and Bart Sokol is a U.S. dollar swap trader.

Credit derivative broker creditex has hired Frank Sweeney, high-yield bond broker at ICAP in London, to spearhead the firm's push into the high-yield credit derivatives market.

David Schwartz, head of structured products marketing at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in New York, has left to start a structured credit fund. Schwartz said the fund, dubbed Fairhaven Asset Management, will focus on the senior classes of risk across structured credit products, including synthetic collateralized debt obligations.

Under the proposed accounting rules companies have to isolate all the derivatives in every transaction and mark them to market. Charlotte Jones, partner at Ernst & Young in London, said, "This is a big task." Adding, "They could be in almost anything."

Conference speakers and delegates were undecided whether the huge administrative burden that companies would have to undertake to achieve favorable accounting rules for derivatives would be worth the manpower. So-called hedge accounting means that derivatives trades have been deemed hedges and can be accounted for in a way that minimizes earnings volatility.