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Marianna Wong has joined the institutional fixed-income sales desk at Comerica Bank as a v.p. in San Francisco. Wong, who moves over from Bear Stearns, will be a fixed-income generalist, selling an array of mostly taxable bonds. She reports to Jack Singer, senior managing director in charge of fixed-income sales in California. Wong says she was in Bear Stearns' Los Angeles fixed-income group. She says she made the move to "broaden" her experience. It could not be determined to whom she reported.

The credit card asset-backed securities sector is awaiting the final guidelines bank regulators will issue Friday on credit card lending. The regulatory changes, to be published by the Federal Financial Institutions Examinations Council, could bring five basis points worth of further spread widening to triple-A, fixed-rate sub-prime names, predicts Alessandro Pagani, ABS analyst at Banc One Capital Markets.

A $45 million auction of Crown Cork & Seal bank debt went off at about 88 last week after the company was said to have received an extension on a $144 million term loan set to mature on Aug. 4. An original lender was rumored to have sold the paper, taking the opportunity to reduce its exposure to the company's bank debt on the good news. One trader suggested that the buyer was looking to profit from a relative-value play. "You could sell the '02 bonds at 99 and buy the bank debt at 88," he added.

Deutsche Bank has hired John Santoro to be its "short-coupon" Treasury bond trader, trading primarily two-year notes. Santoro will replace Jeff Gray, who was released last week. He declined to comment when reached at his desk. Gray had already left the firm and was unavailable for comment late last week. Ted Meyer, a Deutsche Bank spokesman, says Santoro will report to fixed-income chief Thomas Paul. His first day was last Monday. His last job was at SG Cowen, where he ran the government bond desk from 1998 until the first week of April, when he resigned. Late last year, SG Cowen gave up its primary dealership.

Mark Jicka is reportedly leaving Deutsche Bank, where he was a managing director and head of North American corporate bond trading, in order to join Barclays Capital, according to several buy- and sell-side traders. Jicka could not be reached, nor could Rajeev Misra, London-based head of global credit trading at Deutsche Bank. Ted Meyer, Deutsche Bank spokesman, declined to comment. John Kreitler, global trading head at Barclays, did not return calls.

Gough Finance, a New Zealand finance company owned by the Gough, Gough & Hammer group , this week closed the first tranche of a NZ$260m ($117.9m) securitisation of heavy equipment leases. Arranged by National Australia Bank, the deal pools 1,400 operating and finance lease contracts totalling NZ$130m. The programme is expected to build to its full size over the next two years as further receivables are added to the pool.

Korea Exchange Bank Credit Service Co (KEBCS) this week launched its first cross-border securitisation of credit card receivables, a $500m issue led by sole bookrunner Credit Suisse First Boston. KEB Card International ABS 2002-1 offered a single tranche of triple-A rated notes wrapped by FSA, with an average life of 4.5 years and a legal maturity of February 2009.

Indonesia Fitch upgraded Indonesia's foreign currency long term rating from B- to B last Friday (August 2). The agency said that the increase was a result of an improvement in the fiscal sustainability and public debt management of the country, although both areas remained a cause for concern.

Bankers are expecting a burst of Asian privatisation activity from late August once the equity new issue market is back in full swing after the holiday season. In the coming weeks the Japanese government is due to decide whether to proceed with the sale of Japan Tobacco. However, it may have missed its best chance - the ¥266bn sale of the government's remaining 12.7% stake in East Japan Railway (JR East) was completed despite miserable market conditions in early June and many observers believed the government should have completed the Japan Tobacco deal immediately afterwards.

Singapore's bond market has finally seen new primary market activity after months without issuance as Dexia Credit Local, Hamburgische LB Finance and Royal Bank of Scotland all launched zero coupon this week. The three transactions were all arranged by Bank of America Securities, a relatively inexperienced originator of Singapore dollar bonds. Another surprising feature was the zero coupon structure on all three deals, which marks the first time such a structure has been used in the Singapore dollar bond market.

HBOS Treasury Services will target Asian investors when it returns to market with its next Eurodollar bond in September. Investors from the region have only made up 5% of overall allocations in some of HBOS's recent issues. However, the borrower believes that there is a pool of funding in the region waiting to be tapped.

Snowy Hydro Electric Authority plans to access the Australian bond market this week for the first time, having appointed ANZ Investment Bank, JP Morgan and Westpac Institutional Bank to joint lead manage an A$800m two tranche debt issue. The Australian government owned power company is being corporatised to improve its operating efficiency. As part of this process, Snowy Hydro is looking to finance itself on a commercial basis, and the planned bond will mark its first foray into the capital markets.