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Bank of America has hired Eric Ohayon, head of fx structuring at Lehman Brothers in London, to build up its fx structuring business in Europe. Ohayon said he reports to Alan Collins, head of the fx business in London. Ohayon replaces Greg Kaldor, managing director in foreign exchange sales in London, who moved over from a structuring to sales role last year, Kaldor said. Collins referred calls to Rhiannedd Jones, spokeswoman in London, who confirmed that BofA is beefing up its fx structuring presence, but declined further comment.

Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch have reached just under the halfway point in filling Penn National Gaming's $600 "B" piece, however some investors were waiting on President George Bush's State of the Union Address to consider any bids into the credit. "There are big macro things going on this week," a banker explained, while another banker concurred that Bush's speech, assessing issues such as the prospect of war in Iraq and the state of the economy, have market players waiting to make investment moves. Both big and small tickets have rolled into the deal since its Jan. 23 retail launch, the banker noted. The $800 million acquisition credit's "B" piece stands at LIBOR plus 3 1/2%, and the lead banks do not expect any concessions at this point, the banker said, adding that the deadline is Feb. 10.

Crédit Agricole Indosuez is planning to double its pipeline of synthetic CDOs and bespoke tranches this year and will start marketing a USD1 billion synthetic transaction in the coming weeks. The transaction, called Momentum, will include synthetic exposure to high quality corporate names, according to Loic Fery, executive director and global head of credit derivatives and structures at CAI in London. The firm is retaining the equity tranche and offering four tranches rated between AA and BBB.

Deutsche Bank plans to offer an absolute return Islamic product as well as principal protected certificates that are Shariah compliant. The firm launched its first Islamic EquityBuilder Certificates last month and is now looking at structuring products with synthetic exposure to them, according to Shachi Shah, director of structured products at Deutsche Bank in London.

Jerry Woods, managing director in fixed income and 20-plus year veteran of Morgan Stanley in New York, will join Credit Suisse First Boston next month as global co-head of fixed income. An official familiar with the new structure said Woods will work alongside Jim Healy, executive board member and global head of the emerging markets group, who will be named as the other co-head. CSFB watchers said Jack DiMaio, head of fixed income for North America, and Trevor Price, head of the firm's rates business, were passed over for the role of co-head in favor of Woods. DiMaio and Price did not return calls by press time.

Deutsche Bank has structured what is thought to be the first Taiwan-dollar credit derivative and rival houses BNP Paribas, Credit Lyonnais and JPMorgan are in hot pursuit looking to market similar deals. The German bank sold a USD10 million equivalent Taiwan dollar-denominated credit-linked note referenced to a domestic name, according to an official at the firm. The instrument is similar to a deposit but does not contain a guarantee, he added, declining further comment.

OKO Bank Consolidated, the commercial banking arm of the Finnish OKO Bank Group that has EUR32.5 billion (USD34.76 billion) under management, is planning to make its first foray into credit derivatives. The bank will use credit-default swaps to hedge its loan portfolio and also is planning to become a dealer, according to Eero Ketola, an official in the group treasury in Helsinki. The bank does not plan to invest in credit-linked notes or structure collateralized debt obligations, he added.

The Council of Europe Development Bank has entered a cross-currency interest rate swap to convert a recent USD750 million bond offering into a synthetic euro-denominated floating rate liability. Arturo Seco, deputy funding manager in Paris, said the council entered the transaction because it converts all non-euro debt into its home currency and fixed-rate debt into floating. In the swap, the council is receiving the 3.75% fixed coupon on the bond and paying three-month Euribor plus a spread.

The French regulator has told French mutual funds they will be given approval to use credit derivatives--a development that has banks lining up to tap this enormous potential market. Derivative bankers were reluctant to put a dollar amount on the potential notional size of the market, but one said, "We think it's huge."

Behnouche Mostachfi, head of foreign exchange options at Commerzbank Securities in London, has left the firm and Nozar Hussein, head of proprietary fx trading, has been appointed as acting head of both groups. The departure comes amidst rumors that Commerzbank is scaling back its fx options presence, with several rival traders saying the volume of business they conduct with the German bank has fallen. Ricardo Pascoe, global head of corporate risk and capital structure in London, said trading volumes have fallen because the firm has switched to executing more customer-driven business than proprietary trading and therefore moves in and out of positions less frequently. Mostachfi did not return calls and Hussein declined comment.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association set March 17 as a tentative date for switching to the 2002 credit derivatives definitions during a conference call on Wednesday. The definitions are expected to be sent to the printers the week beginning Feb. 3, allowing a six week gap to allow firms to update their systems and train their staff. Lawyers involved in the process anticipate the switch over will go smoothly as they have had several changes in documentation, such as including restructuring supplements, recently.