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The long awaited $80m 364 day bullet term loan for Export Credit Bank of Turkey (Turk Eximbank) was launched into general syndication this week. The deal is only the third by a Turkish financial institution so far this year. Mandated arrangers are ABN Amro (bookrunner), Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi (bookrunner), BayernLB (facility agent), Commerzbank, Crédit Lyonnais, HVB Group (documentation agent), Natexis Banque Populaires and WestLB (bookrunner).

Abbey National has successfully battled a hostile market environment to raise £500m equivalent of tax deductible tier one in sterling and dollars, thereby fulfilling a promise made to shareholders in July that it would raise capital outside the equity market. On Tuesday it priced its non-innovative tier one sterling deal at price talk of 225bp over Gilts, but at the substantially reduced size of £175m. The deal had originally been talked at £200m-£300m.

The mandate to arrange the $350m one year refinancing for Akbank will be awarded next week. The borrower has already received commitments from some of its relationship banks. The deal will pay a margin of 200bp over Libor.

Mandated lead arranger Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein has signed banks into the $50m three year facility for National Bank of Fujairah. The deal carries a margin of 47.5bp over Libor. Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, American Express Bank, ING, Landesbank Rheinland-Pfalz, RZB and Wachovia Bank joined as arrangers for an upfront fee of 45bp. BayernLB and Lloyds TSB joined as lead managers for a fee of 37.5bp and Arab Bank has joined as a manager for a fee of 32.5bp.

Italy's region of Lazio is preparing a securitisation of rental streams from regional hospital operators in a bid to cover its past healthcare deficit. Lead managed by Merrill Lynch and MedioCredito Centrale (MCC) the deal is expected to be worth at least Eu500m and to be launched by the end of the year. According to an official at the Lazio treasury, the securitisation will be backed by rental cashflows from some 57 regional hospitals sold to a publicly owned entity and leased back to local health companies.

Nationwide Building Society this week closed a Eu1.382bn investment grade synthetic collateralised debt obligation via Merrill Lynch. Nationwide is believed to be the first building society to launch a public synthetic securitisation, after an amendment to the Building Societies Act in July last year allowed the sector to hedge credit risk using derivatives.

Morgan Stanley launched its second venture into the French property market this week with the Eu341.45m Eros (European Loan Conduit No 10) FCC. After succumbing to the Greek god of wine, Dionysus, in May, investors were seduced by the god of love, Eros, to participate in the 10th ELoC transaction. ELoC No 9 was backed by properties occupied by Electricité de France and was the programme's first securitisation of continental assets.

NM Rothschild & Sons has launched a conduit vehicle to bring securitisation to the UK's independent and regional auto loan sector. The vehicle, Auto Receivables Conduit plc, has already launched its first securitisation - a £100m variable funding note for two finance entities owned by the Five Arrows Leasing Group, part of the Rothschild group of companies, Benton Finance and County Leasing and Finance. NM Rothschild expects to launch two further issues later this year.

A EuroWeek straw poll of the European ABS market this week revealed that although the traditional safe haven of residential mortgages will continue to be the most active sector later in the year, investors are beginning to feel the pinch of tightening spreads. As Europe shivers under a weak August sun, we caught some of the leading bankers, investors and analysts before they left for sunnier climes, and asked for their predictions for the third quarter.

Commercial mortgage backed securitisation (CMBS) has been billed as one of the main growth sectors for 2002. Commerzbank Securities expects record volumes, with the risk of Eu13.2bn of loans transferred to the capital markets since January 2001. This week the bank launched a Eu2.2bn deal for Bayerische Landesbank backed by mortgage loans from five European countries and the US.

Asset managers braved the ABS market this week as JP Morgan closed a Eu300m collateralised debt obligation for Zais Group Investment Advisors. Only the week before Goldman Sachs and CDC Ixis closed a Eu1bn synthetic managed arbitrage investment grade CDO for CDC IXIS Capital Markets. Even as the deals were launched, investors were preparing to absorb further managed CDO deals from RMF Investment Products and Meliorbanca, arranged by Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns, respectively.

A $45 million auction of Crown Cork & Seal bank debt went off at about 88 this week after the company was said to have received an extension on a $144 million term loan set to mature on Aug. 4. An original lender was rumored to have sold the paper, taking the opportunity to reduce its exposure to the company's bank debt on the good news. One trader suggested that the buyer was looking to profit from a relative-value play. "You could sell the '02 bonds at 99 and buy the bank debt at 88," he added.