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The Financial Services Authority put the UK centre stage in the covered bond market this week when it said it would bring the UK market into line with Article 22.4 of the EU Ucits directive from January 1 next year.

Verizon Communications strutted boldly into the US corporate bond market and snapped up $4bn in a matter of hours yesterday (Thursday), ignoring the US Treasury's $14bn 30 year Treasury bond auction on the same day.

After a year of hype and anticipation, next week's $15bn auction of 30 year Treasury bonds is not likely to change the way new corporate bond issues are priced — at least, not for some months.

Another bout of structured business, particularly in the first half of the week, depressed credit default swaps spreads again, said dealers. Between 15 and 20 different structures are in the global market at the moment, they estimated.

Dollar swap spreads widened this week, following Treasury yields, as the market prepared to absorb the $48bn refunding next week.

Dealers reported a mixed week, with flows subdued on Monday but picking up as interest rate meetings gave clues about the market outlook.

The European Securitisation Forum and the Commercial Mortgage Securities Association are preparing guidelines to help ABS and CMBS market participants comply with the EU's Market Abuse Directive. The directive requires issuers of securities traded on regulated markets to provide price sensitive information to the market publicly and promptly.

The financial institutions market took a small breather this week after what was a hectic January. However, investors were still solicited by lead managers and several transactions peppered the week, enough to keep bankers busy.