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Ecuador requested proposals this week for banks to underwrite a dollar bond offering it has scheduled for the first week of December.

Dollar swap spreads tumbled from their highs at the end of the week after a moderate Treasury rally. At close of trading in New York yesterday (Thursday), the two year was 40.75bp, the five year was 46.75bp, the 10 year was 46.25bp, and the 30 year 46bp. In the early part of the week swap spreads had hit levels not seen for almost six months as Treasuries sold off. The 10 year note was yielding more than 4.40% as a series of Fed officials indicated that, despite the two hurricanes and the price of oil, their primary aim is to constrain inflation.

The impressive resilience of emerging market bonds in the face of bad news finally gave way this week, with prices plunging across the board for the first time since May.

Accounting firm Ernst & Young has reported a record £945m of UK fee income for its financial year ending June 30, a year on year increase of 15%.

European satellite company Eutelsat is premarketing its Eu2bn-plus IPO, with bookrunners Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley ready to launch the deal next week.

The Euromarkets may be uncharacteristically quiet for October, but trust the Italians to keep us smiling. First, the governor of the Bank of Italy was given the bird by his own colleagues and was kept away from the IMF meeting in Washington. Copies of governor Fazio's undelivered speech are available in tourist shops near the Colosseum, where they have been converted into cigar lighters. Governor Fazio has only himself to blame, for encouraging his Italian banking pals to buy Banca Antonveneta using pasta shells, while our friends at ABN Amro, who played every rule by the book, were offering hard cash.

CIBC is readying a limited senior syndication for financing for Industri Kapital's buy-out of concrete product manufacturer Bonna Sabla. The private equity sponsor is buying the company from Axa Private Equity, which bought Bonna Sabla from Vivendi Environnement in 2003.

Five people have gone on trial in Rome for the murder of Roberto Calvi, chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, in 1982. Calvi, known as "God's banker" because of his close ties to the Vatican, was found hanging under Blackfriars Bridge in London with bricks in his pockets.

The Eu400m loan for mobile phone network SFR arranged by BNP Paribas, Calyon, CM-CIC, Natexis Banques Populaires, Royal Bank of Scotland and SG CIB is in the market.

Rating: A3/A-/A-

France Télécom this week launched the second biggest corporate bond of the year, but was forced to widen its pricing to get a Eu2bn deal away.

Steve Gandy has left Bank of America, where he was a managing director in ABS origination. His departure comes three months after the bank hired Steve Skerrett from UBS to run the European ABS business in a renewed drive to build a bigger securitisation and principal finance franchise.