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TD Securities is in the first stages of structuring a USD1 billion managed synthetic collateralized debt obligation. "Only a few of these deals have been done," said a market official. TD will actively manage the portfolio of credit-default swaps through the asset management arm of the bank, TD Waterhouse, according to the official. The deal is expected to hit the market in the next three months.

Bulge bracket investment firms, including Salomon Smith Barney and JPMorgan, caused credit protection on WorldCom to widen as they sought to buy protection on the telecom giant in the wake of the Securities and Exchange Commission's probe of the firm's accounting practices. "I wouldn't call it frantic buying, but the usual investment firm suspects were very active," said one trader in New York. Officials at the firm's declined comment.

Cantor Fitzgerald has hired Christina Hansen, an equity derivatives trader and structurer at Goldman Sachs in New York, to join its growing New York credit derivatives brokerage team, according to Dan LaVecchia, executive managing director and director of U.S. operations. Hansen, who worked at Goldman Sachs for eight years before recently being laid off, joined Cantor about two weeks ago.

UBS Warburg has hired Min G. Lee, associate of collateralized debt obligation trading at Lehman Brothers in Tokyo, as a director handling credit derivatives structuring, according to Lee Knight, Asia-Pacific head of credit derivatives trading at UBS in Tokyo. "This is an expansion of our structured products team," noted Knight, adding that Lee will report to him, declining further comment.

Credit Lyonnais is bringing aboard Takeshi Kondo, v.p. of yen exotics trading at JPMorgan in Tokyo, as the manager of exotic derivatives in Tokyo, according to Yves Ringler, head of fixed-income at Credit Lyonnais in Tokyo. "The business is expanding," said Ringler, noting that low yields in Japan are continuing to fuel interest in exotic interest-rate derivatives. Kondo, who starts Friday, is on gardening leave and could not be reached for comment.

Deutsche Bank has reorganized its foreign exchange sales division as the department has continued to grow. Ken Reich, head of fx sales for North and South America, has been promoted to global head of sales. He will continue to report to Colin Grassie, regional head of the institutional client group for the Americas. Rashid Hoosenally, European head of fx sales and a member of the global fx management committee, is now head of fx client strategy and remains a member of the committee. He previously reported to Grassie and now reports to Jim Turley, global head of fx.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has liberalised the last areas of its Singapore dollar currency control to encourage capital market development. Lee Hsien Yoong, Singapore's deputy prime minister, minister for finance and head of the MAS, announced the regulation changes at the Euromoney Asia Pacific Issuers and Investors Forum held in Singapore this week.

CapitaLand, southeast Asia's largest property development company, yesterday (Thursday) completed the sale of a S$380m five year convertible bond. The deal, arranged by sole bookrunner JP Morgan Securities (SEA), opens the Singapore dollar convertible market and will grab the attention of other local companies, which will be enticed by the 0.625% coupon and 29% conversion premium.

AM Corporation, the Australian superannuation and investment manager, is planning to launch a A$295.7m deal backed by endowment policies. Lead managed by Salomon Smith Barney Australia Securities, the deal is the first of its kind in Australia and those involved say it may be one of the first transactions of this type in the world. "We certainly see it as a first," said Andrew Palmer, an analyst at Standard & Poor's (S&P) in Melbourne who rated the transaction.

Crédit Lyonnais may have started the year slowly but it is putting on a late burst at the end of the first quarter. The French bank completed one deal this week and has two more IPOs set to be priced in the next couple of weeks. This week the bank completed a Eu66m secondary offering for Pierre et Vacances, the French holiday accommodation provider. The sale of 977,500 shares was launched on March 11. The bank then kept the books open for eight working days, closing the deal and pricing it on Wednesday night. The new shares were priced at Eu67.5, a slim 1% discount to the stock's close before the issue was launched. The deal was four times oversubscribed.

Investors are displaying record levels of optimism about the prospects for the European economy, according to a Merrill Lynch survey of 266 fund managers. A net 99% of fund managers expect corporate profits to improve within the next 12 months - but in the short term, appetite for risk remains low.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) focused on the Japanese retail investor base on Monday for an A$880m three year Uridashi bond. The deal was the biggest Australian dollar denominated deal for almost four years and the largest Uridashi bond ever. Nomura was the sole lead manager. The World Bank, taking advantage of the liquidity available, also accessed the market, launching a $400m four year Uridashi and a Eu200m five year Uridashi deal yesterday (Thursday). Both issuers are triple-A rated.