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Bank One Capital Markets has made three new hires to its London-based asset-backed securitization team. On the origination side, Pedram Mazaheri and Cristina Baca have joined from Enron (Europe) and Nischal Patel has joined as a credit underwriter. Patel is also from Enron. The hires were made to beef up the firm's fledgling European ABS effort, says Brooks Crankshaw, head of European ABS.

Bear Stearns is combining its synthetic CDO group with the bank's cash flow underwriting CDO group, according to LMW sister publication, BondWeek. A senior CDO banker at the firm said the merger of the synthetic and cash flow groups is designed to avoid double pitching of CDO deals by two separate teams of bankers to the same collateral managers. Senior managing director Lesley Goldwasser will oversee both synthetic and cash flow CDO originations, the banker said.

BNP Paribas is looking to hire one or two senior analysts for its high-grade research team. Joe Labriola, head of U.S. investment-grade research, says his team of five senior analysts and three associates still lacks sector expertise in chemicals and paper and forest products. He says the French bank has not had an analyst covering those areas for over a year, because it has not been able to find an acceptable candidate. However, Labriola says he is zeroing in on a couple of prospects, and hopes to make a hire fairly soon. BNP Paribas also has had a hole to fill in the energy and utilities sectors since it released Dan Scotto, former co-head of research with Labriola, last December.

InfoUSA secured lower interest rates and increased financial flexibility on a best-efforts $110 million credit facility with Bank of America as its new lead lender. The company refinanced a Deutsche Bank-led $195 million credit well ahead of its maturity date in exchange for better terms. "We felt that we could achieve a more beneficial rate structure and covenant flexibility if we went out and shopped the deal," explained Tim Hoffman, v.p. of finance for infoUSA. Deutsche Bank, preferring to have the "name plate" rather than a supporting role, did not participate on the new syndicate, said Hoffman, noting the split was cordial.

Existing collateralized debt obligations will not be grandfathered under the Financial Accounting Standards Board's proposal to raise the required equity in CDOs from 3% to 10%, much to the dismay of CDO managers, who may have to consolidate these off- balance sheet transactions on the balance sheet. FASB is seeking to implement the new rule in July and rating agency analysts and managers are still unclear of the potential impacts or feasibility of restructuring past transactions. But the initial take is not good. "It's not a viable option," said Andrew Dickey, managing director at MassMutual subsidiary, David L. Babson, regarding the idea of an equity overhaul.

Right Management Consultants (RMC) opted for Wachovia Securities to lead a new $180 million credit to back the acquisition of U.K.-based Coutts Consulting Group after putting the lead role out to bid. "RMC had discussions with Coutts about a year ago, but the opportunity only just became available," said Lee Bohs, executive v.p., corporate development. "We put out a bid informally to a number of banks, but we had a long relationship with First Union, and so opted for Wachovia (which merged with First Union). Previously lending was on a club-style basis, and so this was the first experience with the syndication group," Bohs said. He declined to name the other banks seeking to lead the deal.

Joseph Pimbley has joined insurance company American Capital Access as a credit derivatives portfolio manager in its structured finance department, says Cathy Bailey, a spokeswoman at ACA. Pimbley started last Thursday. He will report to Maryam Muessel, coo. Muessel heads the structured finance group and overseas the firm's asset-backed security and collateralized debt obligation portfolio management and structuring. Pimbley will specialize in managing and structuring credit derivative products within that group, including CDOs. Pimbley's position is a newly created one, says Bailey, reflecting growth in the structured finance business of ACA. She adds that the department may add more people in the future but declined to be more specific.

TD Securities is in the first stages of structuring a USD1 billion managed synthetic collateralized debt obligation. "Only a few of these deals have been done," said a market official. TD will actively manage the portfolio of credit-default swaps through the asset management arm of the bank, TD Waterhouse, according to the official. The deal is expected to hit the market in the next three months.

Bulge bracket investment firms, including Salomon Smith Barney and JPMorgan, caused credit protection on WorldCom to widen as they sought to buy protection on the telecom giant in the wake of the Securities and Exchange Commission's probe of the firm's accounting practices. "I wouldn't call it frantic buying, but the usual investment firm suspects were very active," said one trader in New York. Officials at the firm's declined comment.

Cantor Fitzgerald has hired Christina Hansen, an equity derivatives trader and structurer at Goldman Sachs in New York, to join its growing New York credit derivatives brokerage team, according to Dan LaVecchia, executive managing director and director of U.S. operations. Hansen, who worked at Goldman Sachs for eight years before recently being laid off, joined Cantor about two weeks ago.

UBS Warburg has hired Min G. Lee, associate of collateralized debt obligation trading at Lehman Brothers in Tokyo, as a director handling credit derivatives structuring, according to Lee Knight, Asia-Pacific head of credit derivatives trading at UBS in Tokyo. "This is an expansion of our structured products team," noted Knight, adding that Lee will report to him, declining further comment.

Credit Lyonnais is bringing aboard Takeshi Kondo, v.p. of yen exotics trading at JPMorgan in Tokyo, as the manager of exotic derivatives in Tokyo, according to Yves Ringler, head of fixed-income at Credit Lyonnais in Tokyo. "The business is expanding," said Ringler, noting that low yields in Japan are continuing to fuel interest in exotic interest-rate derivatives. Kondo, who starts Friday, is on gardening leave and could not be reached for comment.