Pre-migration untagged articles

Landesbank Berlin could launch the first structured covered bond from Germany in the coming weeks, making a break with the long history of the Pfandbrief market.

The MTN market took a collective day off on Thursday as Anglo Irish Bank ferried a select group of clients and bankers down to the Cheltenham Festival, the highlight of the British National Hunt horse racing calendar.

Further evidence that the leveraged loan and bond markets are converging came this week when World Directories announced that it would refinance its 2004 leveraged loan.

Merrill Lynch left the Street perplexed this week when it launched a Eu300m switchable CMS deal issued by Rabobank. The switcher has broken the mould of 'vanilla' CMS products sold so far this year, but other dealers are struggling to understand where appetite for the structure came from.

Investors in German mezzanine capital securitisations felt a nasty sense of déjà vu this week as another small company, which participated in three deals, filed for insolvency.

In what was seen as a dramatic U-turn, rating agency Moody's last Friday said it would evaluate a refinement in the application of its joint default analysis (JDA) methodology to bank ratings.

Banco Santander has restructured its ABCP conduit, Cantabric Financing plc, to reduce its liquidity costs. Standard & Poor's continues to rate the notes at A-1, despite a potential reduction in the conduit's liquidity enhancement facility to below 100%.

Friday's US non-farm payroll figures gave the bond market a much-needed respite from last week's volatility and on Monday, calm descended over the markets.

Friday's US non-farm payroll figures gave the bond market a much-needed respite from last week's volatility and on Monday, calm descended over the markets.

The Republic of Slovenia made an impressive return to the international capital markets this week after an absence of almost six years.

From sunny Zurich, where the senior citizens do not shed their winter coats until July 1, we have received the first draft report from our friend, who believes that he is a modern-day Sherlock Holmes. He has been sniffing around the Credit Suisse trail with his faithful bloodhound, Bullseye.