MTN Leak

Every columnist needs a hero, and Leak is unashamed to admit the way in which Sunday Times’ columist AA Gill inspires us each Thursday evening. We particularly liked his recent review of the Tiroler Hut, an Austrian restaurant in London’s Notting Hill. Mr Gill says that the food is inedible, unless you are as drunk as all the guests appear to be, which is very. Apparently, one visits Westbourne Grove’s Tiroler Hut to drink and to test the limits of one’s dignity.

So, Jérôme Kerviel wanted to be taken seriously as a trader and given the respect he felt he deserved? The more we hear from Société Générale, the more it starts to make sense — since there seem to be such real life heroes working at the firm setting an impossible example to aspiring back office boys.

Leak has never before associated loyalty with bankers, but recent events are forcing us to reassess that view.

eals might be tough to do, but at least MTN traders have had plenty of opportunities to share their tales of woe at parties across London this week.

What has a population of 26,186, hosted a crucial battle in the American war of independence, and is home to a racecourse which is the oldest organised sporting venue in America?

We’ve had a flick through our last couple of issues and realised that we owe our regular readers an apology. What with the excitement generated by record-setting write-downs and job cut woe, we’ve reached the third week of the year, and haven’t once managed to mention Amaury Gossé in these pages. Dude! What is going on?

Deals might have been thin on the ground in the bond markets recently, but there are more important new issues in the offing for three MTN dealers and issuers.

The final 2007 MTN league tables reflect the full effects of the credit crisis on structured note issuance. Issuance of structured MTNs fell 35% in the second half of the year from the first half volume of $173.9bn, but for the year as a whole the market still recorded a 10% increase over 2006.

The bells were chiming, the corks popping, the champagne flowing. And MTN dealers were making their new year resolutions. Kindly, many of them agreed to share — anonymously — their promises with Leak.

This week Leak is tempted to tell you all about Julie Edinburgh’s escapades on a Credit Suisse pub crawl from Canary Wharf to Chinatown and Morgan Stanley’s Sylvia Ewald turning down the opportunity to ask Prince Harry for a dance at Boujis.

Leak hasn’t been very well this week, and so in the absence of our normal column, we would like to republish the following letter that fell into our hands. We can’t be sure, but it appears to be from an MTN issuer.

Tuesday evening found Leak at the Norwegian ambassador’s residence in Kensington Palace Gardens for Kommunalbanken’s Christmas party. Squeezed into Bjarne Lindstrøm’s front room — no flat panel TVs here, Oslo’s top man in London had a fully fledged string quartet next to the sofa — Leak couldn’t help but be impressed at the turnout. We never suspected that so many syndicate managers, originators and MTN traders were needed for one global dollar benchmark and a few power reverse duals each year, though maybe the bankers assembled just as an excuse to head off to The Collection in South Kensington afterwards.