MTN Leak

Finally the day arrived. On Monday night, Leak met the UBS commercial paper duo of Tom Mallory and Stefan Boehm, a few weeks after originally arranging a drink. We don’t blame the Swiss bank’s finest: they’re busy chaps, running the CP desk by day (perhaps, morning) and working on the golf handicap by night (afternoon, evening and night may be more correct).

Chris Bryan was in high spirits this week when we made our weekly call to get his esteemed opinion on the commercial paper market. Was it because of a strong week for the Barclays Capital CP desk? Of course not.

Leak prides himself on being particularly well informed when it comes to MTN dealers drinking in cheesy London cocktail bars, having a network of sources reporting back on down-market venues across the capital.

A giggling sheep is always a bit of a surprise, particularly if it turns up in your inbox when you were expecting the details on the latest multi-tiered structured transaction instead.

Word has obviously been getting around to Nomura about the dazzling new MTNWeek awards (which must bring waves of confidence to the lucky desks that own one), as it is already making moves for next year's awards at this early stage. The Japanese bank has hired Andres Gasser from Bank of America to become a director on the debt capital markets origination team. Other MTNers are welcoming the summer months by taking it easy. Dresdner's Michael Stump has been relaxing at home having won a bet with his colleague that he could lose four pounds in two weeks. Barclays's CP originator Monja Blattner is flying to Germany and then Greece for a well-earned rest. And Kommunalbanken's Kristine Falkgard, in between the 39 power reverse dual currency deals she does each day, has found time to pose for not one, but two photos for the company's annual report. Leak thinks the team needs to go on some IT training refresher courses though. In one of the pictures Terje Fronth-Pedersen, Kommunalbanken's portfolio manager, is busy clicking on his mouse buttons despite his computer screen not being switched on.

The chaps at SNS bank are preparing for another day spent racing around the country roads outside Amsterdam in their vintage cars. The day will take place in mid-June and most of the dealers have been invited. After the rally car racing, SNS has lots more in store for its guests, but Bas Snijders and Bart Toering, on the debt issuing desk, are not giving away any secrets about the day's line up. But the invitation promises that it will be a late night. Dresdner's Michael Stump has been lying low for the past few months, but Leak can reveal that he is a man with a mission. The mission has been to shed a few pounds and he has been doing remarkably well. If he manages another two and a half pounds by May, he could stand to win a £

The last of the Lehman class of '95 has left the bank. Tiina Lee, Deborah Loades and Bruce Cairnduff went on to bigger and better things last millennium. And even Richard Tynan managed to do a passable impression of a rat as he jumped the good ship Lehman earlier this year. And now Julia Ward, Lehman's queen of origination, has seen the light and realised that, with a wedding to fund, she needs a more generous employer. Commerzbank may be ranked 20th in the MTNWeek league tables, but she has decided its better to work for a bank on the way up than one falling quicker than Rupert Lewis off his motorbike. Rumour has it that she is to take up her post in October, where she will be joining Francisco Perello, Commerz's head trader. And Commerzbank is not the only German house recruiting. Though Jon Saunders was being his usual coy self, we gather that Dresdner, after seeing most of its capital markets team walk out, is hiring again. Michael Stump has been added to beef up its MTN team, sparing poor Jon that tiresome job of pitching for programmes. And we hear there is another trader joining Jon soon. Watch this space . . .