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Nederlandse Waterschapsbank has raised the ceiling off its Euro-CP programme from euro3 billion ($2.66 billion) to euro10 billion. The programme has issued $2.97 billion off 74 trades.

Fannie Mae began a buyback of off-the-run Benchmark securities in the 30 year sector this week. On Tuesday, the US agency repurchased $300m of its 6.25% May 15 2029s, $85m of its 7.125% January 15 2030s, and $25m of its 7.25% May 15 2030s. The amounts reflect the value of the securities when launched, not what the agency paid for them. With the swap curve at its steepest levels of the year and both swaps and Treasuries rallying, long dated agency paper has been cheap against swaps, and the market was expecting the first repurchase to come in the 30 year sector. Fannie Mae is due to launch a new 30 year line in April.

* Anglo Irish Bank Corp Amount: Eu150m subordinated debt (increased 28/03/01 from Eu100m)

* Abbey National Treasury Services plc Guarantor: Abbey National plc

First Active, the Irish mortgage lender, signed a euro750 million ($665 million) Euro-CP programme on Wednesday, 28 March. The facility was arranged by Royal Bank of Scotland and follows the issuer's euro1.5 billion global MTN programme signed in December 2000. Donal Corbett, manager of structured finance at First Active, says that they have no immediate plans for funding but are keen to issue at opportunistic levels. He says: "In terms of funding levels, we have no explicit target at the moment for the ECP. Our liquidity requirements were eased following the completion of a transaction with Britannic in September 2000 and the benefit of that still exists. If it makes economic sense for us to fund at the levels that are out there, then we will." Corbett continues: "We have no plans to roadshow the ECP programme. We will meet with our dealers early next week to discuss the latest trends in the ECP market in terms of pricing and investor appetite for P2 / F2-rated paper. The market now knows us through our MTN programme and we will post prices for the ECP next month." The dealers off the programme are the arranger, Credit Suisse First Boston and Deutsche Bank.

France Telecom has concluded a euro40 million ($35.75 million) Euro-MTN which is to be issued on April 2. The note matures on December 31 2007. This is issuer's fourth note of the year - their second in euro. Their other two trades were denominated in Swiss franc and Japanese yen. The issue is made off France Telecom's euro27.5 billion Euro-MTN programme, which was joint-arranged by Merrill Lynch and BNP Paribas. The programme has $13.37 billion outstanding off 28 trades.

Deutsche Telekom has issued a euro50 million ($44.34 million) note off its euro10 billion debt issuance programme. It is their first issue of the year. The note matures on January 9 2002.

GECC took advantage of worldwide demand for top quality paper this week with the launch of a $750m five year global bond. Demand for the transaction was such that bookrunners Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and UBS Warburg were able to launch the offering at 88bp over Treasuries, tighter than the original 92bp-90bp price talk. The issue tightened further in the aftermarket to trade at around 86bp bid, 84bp offered.

The Greek government has stepped up its privatisation programme ahead of the Olympic Games in 2004 and is likely to begin with the Eu175m IPO of OPAP, the Greek soccer pools and lottery agency. The state will sell 10% of the company next month. The deal is being led by Alpha Finance, Agricultural Bank and Piraeus Bank, but a syndicate of 50 banks and brokers is involved in the issue. This should give the deal a better chance of success by targeting as many investors as possible. "The Greek market has had a rough time over the last few months," said a banker close to the deal.

Cadbury Schweppes Finance has closed a four-year Hong Kong dollar trade. The HK$100 million ($12.82 million) FRN is the first time Cadbury Schweppes has issued in the currency. Hong Kong dollar continues to be a popular choice for investors and accounts for one in 10 trades so far this year.

Bear Stearns yesterday (Thursday) demonstrated its commitment to expanding its investment banking operations in Europe, despite the dramatic downturn in business, by hiring HSBC's equity syndicate head, Emmanuel Pezier, to set up its European equity-linked operations. Pezier will start at the end of April. The move is a blow to HSBC's aspirations in equity capital markets. Pezier had been running the desk at HSBC for just over six months. The hire helps Bear build up its three pronged approach to equity capital markets. "We want to be very focused with a high product content," said Olivier Favre-Gilly, head of European equity capital markets (ECM) at the bank. As well as equity-linked products, Bear will offer equity and private equity facilities, and will concentrate on the technology, media and telecoms, healthcare and financial services sectors.

"Allianz to buy Dresdner Bank?" We were dining quietly in Chelsea with a group of bankers when everyone's mobile started to shrill at the same time. Thank heavens that foie gras can't go cold. Our first reaction was that this deal does not win any brownie points for originality. Allianz already owns more than 20% of Dresdner and lots more through cross-shareholdings. Allianz has tried to find a solution for Dresdner through attempted mergers with Deutsche and Commerzbank and failed on both occasions. Now Allianz looks as if it may take Dresdner for itself. There is some logic in this strategy. Dresdner is a much better bank than it was two years ago but it needs a push to propel it into the premier division. With Allianz's financial muscle, Dresdner could become the European answer to Citigroup. In investment banking Allianz-Dresdner could clean up in Germany thanks to Allianz's stranglehold on German industry. At once Dresdner would become the most powerful bank in Germany. We suspect that our friends at Deutsche will be holding emergency meetings this weekend.