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Chip Stevens, v.p. at Merrill Lynch, has left the firm to relocate to the U.S. with another investment bank. Dale Lattanzio, managing director and head of the global principal investment ans secured financing group, said Stevens had left of his own accord and would be replaced, although it had not been determined whether the hire would be internal or external. Lattanzio would not elaborate on the firm Stevens had joined. Stevens had already left Merrill and could not be reached.

NCR Corp., a technology company with 2001 revenue of nearly USD6 billion, is considering entering its first interest-rate swap in more than 10 years. An official at the company in Dayton, Ohio said the Standard & Poor's 500 Index component is in discussions with various banks about entering a swap, in which it would convert a fixed-rate bond it sold recently into a floating-rate liability. It issued the seven-year USD300 million bond last month with a 7.125% coupon. Bank One Capital Markets and Salomon Smith Barney underwrote the transaction.

"The people that support us with their balance sheet will get a shot at this business first."-- Matt Hildreth, senior v.p. of finance at Fleming Companies in Lewisville, Texas, commenting on how it will allocate foreign exchange derivatives business. For complete story, click here.

Extendicare Health Services, an operator of more than 260 nursing homes in the U.S. and Canada, has entered an interest-rate swap with Lehman Brothers to convert an existing fixed-rate liability into floating-rate, said Mark Durishan, cfo in Milwaukee. Officials at Lehman declined comment.

BNP Paribas has changed the reporting line for its London-based European securitization research group so that it now reports to a banker--Ra Sharma, global head of structured credit syndicate, instead of to the head of credit strategy.

This chart, provided by Citibank/Salomon Smith Barney Inc., tracks bid-ask prices for par credit facilities that trade in the secondary market. It also tracks facility amounts, ratings, pricing and maturities.

Doubts about the global economy, persistent weakness in the equity markets and bad news from corporates regarding accounting, has London-based Govett Investment Management looking for plain, simple and traditional corporate borrowers. Bob Attridge, fixed-interest manager of the firm's £200 million corporate monthly income fund, says he is looking for long-dated, quality bonds, because, in addition to being concerned about lower-rated corporates, he does not foresee the Bank of England raising rates in the near-term. He says he is considering the upcoming deal from Anglian Water, because, "You can't get much more straight forward than a water company."

1-800-OOPS... An LMW staffer trying to activate his new Chase banking card got a fine how do ya do when he mistakenly dialed a hybrid of the English-speaking number provided and the Spanish-speaking number listed just below it. The hodge-podge of numbers connected him to the sultry (recorded) voice of a woman who said, "I've been waiting for your call, baby." Yikes. Sure, the right relationship is everything, but that seems like a bit much. A quick hang-up and a second try at the number brought the desired result activation of the card.

Mitch Stapley, portfolio manager at Fifth Third Investment, will rotate 5%, or $150 million, of the funds he manages from Treasuries into corporates to take advantage of bargains created by the recent accounting woes. He will focus on companies with good fundamentals. It is not so much "what you own but what you don't own," he says, stressing the importance of identifying and selling early those names susceptible to negative headlines. As an example, he has already liquidated notes issued by Qwest Corp. (Baa3/BB+), Clear Channel (Baa3/BBB-) and Cox Communications Inc. (Baa2/BBB).

McGlinn Capital Management is looking to reduce its telecommunications holdings by about 0.5%, or $5 million, according to J.P. Weaver, portfolio manager of $1 billion in taxable fixed income. Weaver would not name specific issuers in the sector whose bonds he is looking to sell, but says he is hoping that a few of the troubled credits will rebound slightly.

Citigroup Asset Management released the former Smith Barney Asset Management taxable fixed-income management team last week, a 12-person operation that oversaw some $7.5 billion in assets and included 14 mutual funds. Mary Athridge, a firm spokeswoman, says the move will cut costs and makes sense given the current downturn, though the Smith Barney group was in no way bleeding assets. No further moves are planned at this time, she says.