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Citigroup is road showing a synthetic emerging-market collateralized debt obligation and is aiming to raise E500 million.

Credit derivative product companies, AAA-rated special-purpose entities created to sell credit-default swap protection on single names and portfolio tranches, are gaining popularity, said Nancy Braun, director of financial products at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.

Credit Suisse has hired Jim Sweeney and Colin Sims, both from SG Corporate & Investment Banking in New York, to expand the firm's fund-linked products business in the U.S.

Short-dated implied volatility on the U.S. dollar/yen popped last week, reflecting strong option-buying interest.

Deutsche Bank has hired Michael Chang, v.p. and equity derivatives marketer at Credit Suisse in Hong Kong.

ISDA is working to create subcommittees of various non-dealer derivatives users to address interests and concerns not represented by existing dealer-dominated committees.

Dresdner Kleinwort has hired Ulrich Schlumberger, a senior emerging market equity derivatives trader at Barclays Capital, to head emerging market equity trading.

A European loan credit-default swap index may launch in a matter of weeks, but some dealers are saying it will be stillborn because there is insufficient liquidity in single-name LCDS.

Rosneft, the Russian state oil company, completed the largest ever listing on the London Stock Exchange this week, raising $10.42bn with comfortable oversubscription, despite the intense controversy that has dogged the deal.

A pair of senior former Merrill Lynch staffers has launched an asset and liability management firm to advise defined benefit pension funds and insurance companies. Dawid Konotey-Ahulu, former managing director and head of the insurance and pensions solutions group at Merrill in London, and Robert Gardner, an ex-director in the group, will consult on using derivatives and collateralized debt obligations as part of strategic risk management, asset allocation and funding.

Credit Suisse has hired Jim Sweeney and Colin Sims, both from SG Corporate & Investment Banking in New York, to expand the firm's fund-linked products business in the U.S. Both started last week--Sweeney as managing director and co-head with Jeff Jaenicke of fund-linked products in the Americas, reporting to Tony Pesco, managing director and global head of fund derivatives at CS in New York, and Sims as v.p. and product specialist focusing on fund of funds. Pesco said the hires, which bring the group to six, are an important step in building a U.S. presence. He expects to hire about four more in coming months.

A business reorganization at U.S. cigarette maker Altria may see debt retired and credit protection holders with worthless contracts--a phenomenon known as orphaning.