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Ken Griffin’s $20 billion Citadel Investment Group plans to expand the securitized products platform within its flagship Kensington Global Strategies Fund Limited and offshore counterpart, Wellington Fund LLC.

Credit Suisse will shut down its Credit Suisse Target Return bond fund following bad bets related to the subprime mortgage market. The fund has fallen 14.45% over the past two years as one of its largest holdings, Kensington Mortgages, has fallen more than 50% in the same period, reports reports FundStrategy.co.uk. “We had the view that yield curves would steepen and we thought this fund would benefit, but it didn't," said Toby Ricketts, an investment director at Margetts and an investor in the fund. “They said that the poor performance was due to exposure to mortgage-backed securities.”

Special servicing is gaining new traction in the U.K. as fear grows that the negative credit developments in the U.S. could be replicated across the pond.

The ranch always gets excited at the prospect of the London Marathon. It’s not that Loan Ranger, Tonto and Silver enjoy running in it — we prefer raising money for charity by asking Will Self to share his light-hearted views on the world with the loan market.

The service will be held at 2pm at Chelsea Old Church in London. The church is at the corner of Old Church Street and Cheyne Walk. The nearest tube station is South Kensington. Buses include 11, 19, 22, 49, 239, 319 and 328, according to the church's website.

It was a black day for the capital markets when last Thursday we lost Ian Kerr, who had commented on the markets since the 1960s and become their pre-eminent gossip columnist. Ian’s many friends will mourn a warm, delightful and deeply kind person; some of his targets will breathe easier; all in the capital markets will miss a voice that gave them the fullest — and funniest — reflection of their business available in print. EuroWeek honours a man who came to epitomise the markets he loved. By Jon Hay

events@HSBC.com Phew! We’ve been flat out organising our monumental Chinese New Year Party. How appropriate that 2008 is the year of the Rat: lean, mean and happy to scrounge around in the sewer for sustenance.

The new year has yet to bring much cheer to the European ABS market. With many people still on holiday, activity in both primary and secondary markets was negligible; with only indicative credit default swap spreads giving any concrete indication of sentiment.

Moody's Investors Service last week placed on review for downgrade 13 classes of residential mortgage-backed notes originated by U.K. non-conforming lender, Kensington Mortgages and already downgraded two classes in the same series.

A bond issue by the Republic of the Congo sealed a restructuring deal with the London Club of commercial creditors this week, replacing around $2.1bn of bank loans that had been in default for up to two decades. Ninety percent of creditors accepted the deal, which wrote off more than 77% of the debt and arrears involved. Congo (also known as Congo-Brazzaville), is enjoying an oil export boom. The deal implies debt relief of more than $1.6bn, equivalent to 25% of its external debt, or 19% of GDP.

IMF praises London Club restructuring, but doubts raised on the government’s use of new funds

The UK’s Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has joined the line of supplicants at the Bank of England’s door, asking for assistance in funding £90bn of net mortgage lending next year. However, the UK’s Financial Service Authority (FSA) sounded a warning on growth in the mortgage sector, warning that lenders may have to sacrifice growth for liquidity.