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UK mortgage lender GMAC-RFC Ltd this week brought the ninth securitisation in its successful programme backed by non-conforming residential mortgages. Lead manager Bear Stearns International attracted nine new accounts to the RMAC name with three tranches of notes totalling £525m, issued by RMAC 2002-NS2 all wrapped by Ambac and rated triple-A.

Food receivables returned to Italian securitisation this week as Cremonini, a food manufacturer and distributor, launched a Eu120m securitisation of meat and food receivables. Lead managed by Abaxbank and Bank of America, the deal marks a return to the beginnings of Italian securitisation, when food companies such as Cremonini and Cirio, along with lease groups, were the most regular issuers through factoring Law 52.

The Dutch mortgage backed market welcomed an interesting addition to the family this week with a Eu1.4bn real estate transaction from Vesteda Woningen, the largest mutual residential property investment fund in the Netherlands. Brought by bookrunner Deutsche Bank, Vesteda Residential Funding I BV issued three tranches of triple-A rated notes. This rating was achieved thanks to deep over-collateralisation offered by the Eu3.98bn portfolio backing the deal.

Veneto Banca, a co-operative bank based in northern Italy, this week launched its debut ABS, a Eu373m securitisation of first ranking mortgages via Citigroup/SSSB and IntesaBci. Formed in 1999 by the merger of two local co-operative banks, Veneto chose to pool residential and commercial assets to reach a critical mass for securitisation, conferring a 100% risk weighting on the bonds.

Banca Agrileasing, the Italian bank that services the country's co-operative network, last week returned to market with its second securitisation of lease receivables, worth Eu756m. Agrileasing first came to market last May with a Eu520m deal lead managed by UBS with Mediobanca.

Some $25 million of a planned $275 million bond offering for Berry Plastics has been shifted to the $305 million "B" term loan. A banker said the bond market has backed up whereas the loan was heavily oversubscribed, prompting the shift in funds. Pricing on the now $330 million institutional tranche also was flexed downward 25 basis points to LIBOR plus 3%. Meanwhile, the 10-year notes were set to be priced on July 17, with price talk in the 10 1/2-10 3/4% range. Officials at Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan, which are leading the financing package, declined to comment.

Wireless names were the topic of conversation in the secondary market this week, with Nextel Communications leading the pack. "Strong results caused the market to tick up," one investor said, referring to Nextel. Indeed, the name rallied from the high 70s after announcing promising second quarter results on Tuesday. Some market players claimed that the paper traded as high as 86 after the news, but others said it peaked in the 85-85 1/2 range, trading into retail. The highest Street trade was 84 7/8. By Wednesday, Nextel had settled back to the 83-84 level. Calls to Paul Saleh, cfo, were referred to a spokeswoman, who did not return calls by press time.

Five-year default protection on media giant AOL Time Warner tightened more than 60 basis points last week after the company announced it had secured a USD10 billion bank loan facility on Monday, easing fears of a liquidity crunch. Mid-market five-year credit-default swaps tightened from 480 basis points over LIBOR at the start of the week to 415bps by late Wednesday in New York. Five-year protection had been as wide as 560bps at the end of the previous week. "A lot of people were worried that something would prevent or delay the closure of the bank loan, so when they signed it there was a relief," said one trader in New York, referring to some of the recent accounting scandals among U.S. companies. He added the cost of protection had been pushed up in recent weeks before the loan was finalized, perhaps even by banks in the syndicate. Despite the short-term gyrations in the default-swap market, AOL's credit rating remains stable, according to Andrew Watt, a director and AOL analyst at Standard & Poor's in New York. "Our rating anticipated this financing; our view was that this would be put in place, but the market had some attention on external events that had no bearing on the credit profile," he noted.

Alex Braun, director of funding and asset management on the fixed-income side, and Paul Caldwell, a senior asset-backed and high-yield bond portfolio manager, have left Abbey National Treasury Services. The departures are the result of a restructuring in the wholesale bank, according to a spokeswoman. Braun's responsibilities have been divided, with funding now being part of the Treasury division and asset management coming under a newly established division--asset management and risk transfer. It could not be determined whether Caldwell will be replaced. Braun and Caldwell could not be reached for comment.

Bank of America has hired Bronia Jenkins, chief marketing officer at Volbroker, as head of foreign exchange options in New York. At the same time, Mark Mullet, a senior fx options trader atUBS Warburg, has been brought on board to trade fx options. He reports to Jenkins.

The credit derivatives market could be heading for a bust up on the same scale as last year's Railtrack debacle over a little-known clause contained in the bonds of Marconi Corp., according to industry bankers and lawyers. One trader estimated hundreds of millions of dollars in Marconi credit protection was traded up until last summer when the company hit financial difficulties.