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Some of the derivatives industry's biggest movers and shakers gathered in New York last week for the International Swaps and Derivatives Association's annual North American member conference. Karen Brettell, senior reporter, attended.

No, it's for the other president...At The Bond Market Association's CDO Investors conference held Tuesday at the New York Helmsley hotel, two blocks from the United Nations building, Christopher Ricciardi, a managing director at Merrill Lynch, poked fun at Micah Green, president of the association.

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.

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.

To aid market participants in the adoption of the 2002 International Swaps and Derivatives Association equity derivatives definitions as the standard for documenting equity derivative transactions, ISDA recently published a User's Guide.

AXA Investment Managers is considering offering U.K. retail investors one of the first structured notes referenced to synthetic collateralized debt obligations by the middle of next year. Vincent de Martel, director in structured products and alternative investment management in London, said, "The biggest challenge is educating the retail client base about this asset class."

Five-year credit protection on British American Tobacco tightened by 10-12 basis points last week following a court ruling on the size of Altria Group's potential liability in a case for allegedly misleading smokers on the safety of light cigarettes. Credit-default swaps referenced to BAT traded at 85-89bps Wednesday. Protection on Altria, meanwhile started the week at 330bps and dipped as low as 191bps before coming back to 220-230 Thursday, according to a trader. There was good two-way business for BAT credit-default swaps for usual size trades of GBP5 million (USD8 million).