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Municipality Finance, a Finish government-backed lending body that provides financing to local government departments, is planning to enter a swap to convert liabilities on a floating-rate Swiss franc-denominated bond into a synthetic floating-rate euro-denominated obligation.Toni Heikkilä, senior manager in Helsinki, said the lender recently raised CHF100 million (USD60 million) in a fixed-rate deal by tapping a CHF200 million bond it sold last year and now is in the process of converting it to a floating euro liability. "When we do our new funding, we almost always swap it into floating euros," he said.

Euro/dollar and dollar/Swiss implied volatility fell last week after Credit Suisse First Boston reportedly sold USD1.5 billion of one-month dollar puts/Swiss calls struck at CHF1.6875 Tuesday and UBS Warburg jumped into the market to sell over a yard of euro calls/dollar puts, according to traders. The euro calls/dollar puts mature Feb. 26 and were struck at USD0.8725. Traders at CSFB and UBS declined comment.

Under intense scrutiny from all corners, Enron employees are hoping something will come along and take the white hot spot off the company. One banker who spoke to a colleague at Enron recently said his friend noted that everyone at the company is "hoping they catch Bin Laden" to take the heat off of Enron.

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.

Joe Zarr, portfolio manager with Meeder Financial, will increase the firm's Treasury bond duration from 2.0 years to 6.5 years if the 10-year Treasury yield rallies to a 4.90% target yield. As of last Monday, the 10-year Treasury was yielding 5.09%. He plans on moving the entire Treasury allocation--currently 90% of the portfolio, or $180 million-- reasoning that conditions will be there for a sustainable Treasury rally, but declined to specify what would spur this rally.

Credit Suisse Asset Management, which manages €7.5 billion in European fixed-income assets from its London office, has taken profits on telco, auto and cyclical paper to make room for new issuance.John de Garis, head of CSAM's European fixed-income team in London, declined to detail the credits he sold.

Chelsea Management Co. is looking to swap out of $30-$50 million in U.S. agency debentures with maturities of over 10 years that are callable in two- to three-years, in order to purchase similar-yielding agencies with maturities of less than 10 years. Tom Techentin, portfolio manager of $375 million in taxable fixed-income, says what he believes is a rising interest rate environment diminishes the value of the longer duration paper. Chelsea will look to swap bonds of a wide variety of agencies, but some examples include Federal Home Loan Bank 6.75% debentures of '16 and 6.5% debentures of '16. The firm will also look to sell Federal National Mortgage Association 6.37% debentures of '14, says Techentin.

Morgan Stanley reportedly bought two yards of dollar puts/Canadian dollar calls Wednesday. The move sent one-week implied vol rocketing from 6.5% to 8.5%. The trade was executed in an hour and one trader said it is the equivalent notional size as goes through in an average week.

Amy Yamamoto, v.p.-equity derivatives marketing at Credit Suisse First Boston in New York, resigned Wednesday, according to market officials. Yamamoto, a member of the firm's private client and retail team, reported to Michael Crooks, managing director and head of the private client retail team. Yamamoto marketed products to high-net-worth individuals.

Bradley Berggren, head of the structured products group for equity derivatives at Banc of America Securities in New York, resigned last week. Berggren, who joined the firm in the merger with NationsBanc Montgomery Securities several years ago, reported to Jonathan Sandelman, managing director and executive committee member. Sandelman said Berggren decided to quit because he wanted a lifestyle change. Berggren could not be reached for comment.

UBS Warburg has hired Phil Tsao, interest-rate derivatives marketer for Greater China at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong, as head of Asia derivatives marketing, according to Joonkee Hong, managing director and Asian head of debt capital markets in Hong Kong. Hong declined further comment and Tsao is on gardening leave and could not be reached.