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The junk desk of FleetBoston Financial is reportedly weighing a move from New York, either to the firm's Boston headquarters or to another branch office, according to high-yield officials on the buy- and sell-sides who have spoken with people at the firm. Calls to Scott Vallar, one of the heads of the New York operation, and John Agnew, trading head, were not returned. Rivals say the move could conceivably be part of a cost-cutting drive although this could not be confirmed.

Westdeutsche ImmobilienBank, based in Mainz, is planning to launch its first residential mortgage-backed securitization in the first half this year. Martin Weber, senior v.p., says the firm will pursue a E1 billion synthetic deal through the Provide platform sponsored by Kreditanstalt fur Wiesbaden, a state-owned German bank. The Provide program was started by KfW to simplify the securitization process for German banks. The bank is organizing a RMBS for regulatory capital relief purposes, says Weber.

Annie Pankoski is the latest addition to ABN AMRO's loan team as the bank bulks up on personnel in an effort to increase its presence in the loan market. Pankoski recently left Goldman Sachs, where she was a v.p. in loan syndications and trading, said an ABN spokesman. She began working at ABN as a v.p. of loan sales last Monday. Pankoski will be working with Susan Greenwood and Alexander Byers, who joined the bank's distribution team last August. She will report to John Finan, managing director of U.S. loan syndication global financial markets at ABN. An official from Goldman declined to comment and a spokeswoman did not return calls by press time.

Career Education has chosen Bank of America over incumbent LaSalle Bank to lead an upsized credit facility to be used for acquisitions. Patrick Pesch, Career Education cfo, explained that the company actively shopped the deal, putting out a detailed request for proposals. "We looked at Bank of America as having a slight edge," said Pesch, adding that the bank had a good understanding of Career Education's business and of how the credit would be used. B of A structured the credit to provide flexibility so that the company could pursue future acquisitions, he added. LaSalle Bank still participates on the deal as a co-syndication agent.

Bank of Ireland is seeking to fill a spot for a leveraged finance associate and is gearing up to expand its leveraged finance group in the U.S. The position the bank is looking to fill is a replacement for a departing staffer, an official familiar with the bank said. But Bank of Ireland plans to progressively increase its U.S. staff within the next 12-18 months. He added that the bank is currently interested in large cap leveraged deals to build up its loan portfolio. A Bank of Ireland official based in Greenwich, Conn., declined to comment.

Part ofIsle of Capri Black Hawk's new credit will be used to back the company's $84 million acquisition of Colorado Central Station and Colorado Grande Casino from International Game Technology. The transaction will allow the company to take advantage of increased market share and consequent expansion opportunities in the fast growing Black Hawk, Col., casino market, according to Moody's Investors Service. The lack of diversified assets that back the new facility, however, burdens the credit. "If you're a creditor, [the Black Hawk assets are] your only source of repayment," said Keith Foley, Moody's senior analyst.

Bank of America Securities has begun to market an E1 billion collateralized debt obligation, called Anchor CDO I, that is unique in that it will be the first CDO to feature a junior super senior tranche. Mitch Braselton, head of global structured products marketing for Europe, The Middle East and Africa at BofA in London, says one motivation behind structuring a deal like Anchor is that monolines and reinsurers--super senior swap providers--have changed their criteria and are more demanding about the amount of subordination in a deal.

Massachusetts Financial Services is prepping a $300 million real estate collateralized debt obligation for pricing in the first half of next month, says a CDO market participant. The offering will be the second CDO originated by this Boston-based manager. Wachovia Securities will be the underwriter for this transaction, called Crest Dartmouth Street 2003-1. Michelle Tan, v.p. at Wachovia, declined to comment. Joshua Marston, portfolio manager at MFS, did not return calls by press time.

Broadwing is working toward an amendment in conjunction with a five-point restructuring plan that will allow the company to deal with its burdensome maturities and amortization. "The most critical issue is getting the bank deal done," said one analyst. The current plan calls for the maturity on the revolver to be extended by 16 months. Pricing on the revolver will be increased to LIBOR plus 4%. Bank of America is the syndication agent on the credit and Citigroup is administration agent. Credit Suisse First Boston and Bank of New York are co-documentation agents.

Crown Cork & Seal paper was active last week in anticipation of a refinancing, but there is some skepticism concerning whether investors will buy into the new deal. The market for the name has ticked up to the 97-98 range from the 92-93 range, where it was quoted last month. "It's a good solid credit, but some people just don't do the asbestos game," noted one dealer.

Citigroup/Schroder Salomon Smith Barney has tapped Stephanie Ziar for its London-based securitization research effort. Ziar is an internal transfer from the securitization origination desk, says Richard Pagan, co-head of European credit research in London. Ziar reports to Pagan. The securitization research position had been vacant since last August, when Shaker Sundaram left to join UBS Warburg as an asset-backed salesman (BW, 8/25).

WEEKLY UPDATE The final week of the month saw another round of robust issuance with $7 billion of investment-grade volume and over $6 billion of high-yield issuance coming to market. This brings the month-to-date investment-grade volume to $53 billion, but slightly more than $20 billion of that falls into the supra/sovereign category. This helps explain why technicals in the more narrowly defined corporate sector remain strong. Thirty billion dollars odd of corporate supply represented no problem for a market intent on over-weighting credit for the year and the payment of over $17 billion in maturities during the month has helped augment demand. An active week in the high yield sector has helped reduce the four-week moving average rating to A- from an annual high of AA- just last week.