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Finland The arrangers on the Eu2.5bn facility for UPM-Kymmene say the facility will not be launched into the market until the end of August.

SNS Bank Nederland has issued a euro5 million ($4.22 million) note that goes out to September 2013. Euro is by far the issuer's favourite currency. Almost 70% of its funds this year have come in euro, with yen in second place. Its biggest euro trade in 2001 was a euro300 million syndicated note that had an annual yield of 5.431%. It was issued on February 26 and matures on October 16 2007.

* European Investment Bank Rating: Aaa/AAA

* Deutsche Bank AG (London) Rating: Aa3/AA/AA

Royal Bank of Scotland, along with one other, is in the frame to arrange the financing backing ABN Amro Private Equity's £215m cash purchase of WH Smith's distribution division. A formal mandate is expected in the next week. Lloyds/TSB and Royal Bank of Scotland have signed banks into the extension on the £125m revolver for health club operator Esporta.

Alliance UniChem plc, the international pharmaceutical company, is planning to launch only the second European securitisation to be backed by pharmaceuticals receivables. Lead managed by BNP Paribas, the £100m transaction is also the first UK ABS term deal to be backed, in part, by trade receivables originated by a government body in the UK.

In a move that could further cement the development of swaps as an alternative benchmarking tool, the board of directors of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) has approved the launch of new five and 10 year swap futures and futures options contracts. This will be CBOT's second attempt at developing swaps futures. Between 1991 and 1996, it offered three and five year swaps futures, but without sufficient liquidity in the underlying asset, they never developed the volumes needed to be a viable trading tool.

* Kommunekredit Rating: Aaa/AAA

Deutsche Bahn has issued the inaugural trade off its euro5 billion ($4.36 billion) debt issuance programme, which it signed on June 27 2001. Deutsche Bank is the arranger. The Sfr250 million ($144.86 million) note was issued on Thursday, July 19, and Hartwig Schneidereit, head of capital markets at Deutsche Bahn, is particularly pleased with the speed of the issuer's first issue. He says: "We have issued our funding targets to our dealers and this morning we already made our first transaction, which was a Sfr250 million deal. We are very happy with how things are going." And Schneidereit is confident that the programmes initial success will continue in the future. He says: "We have already had an extensive roadshow in May, which covered all the major cities in Europe. And this was not our first roadshow. Because of this we are confident that investors are now very familiar with our name." But with its double-A rating Schneidereit is keen to tap the Japanese market. He says: "Euroland will form the important part of our investor base but we are thinking seriously about Japan as a market to exploit. This year we have not planned a visit to Japan but we will definitely go next year." Deutsche Bahn employed a mix of both relationship and experience in its choice of banks to work with. Schneidereit says: "When deciding on our arranger and dealers our previous relationship was very important but we also looked at their current capabilities. We will have a very open programme and we will adopt a dealer of the day system to encourage other banks." The dealer panel is the arranger, ABN Amro, DG Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, SG Bank, UBS Warburg and Westdeutsche Landesbank.