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KfW priced its $3bn five year benchmark yesterday (Thursday), the inaugural issue off its dollar funding programme. At least one other benchmark offering from the German agency, also for $3bn, will be priced this year. The lead managers were Citigroup/SSB, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. The 4.75% notes were priced to yield 4.748%, or 58bp over the 3.50% Treasury due in November 2006. The notes were set to yield 5bp outside the Fannie Mae 5% Benchmark Note due in January 2007, which on the morning of pricing was trading at Libor less 15bp. Consequently, the asset swap value of the KfW notes was around Libor less 10bp.

MassMutual Global Funding has upped the ceiling off its $2 billion global debt issuance programme to $3 billion. Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers have been dropped as both US and European dealers. Banc of America Securities, Bear Stearns, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch and Salomon Smith Barney have been added as US and European dealers.

Quite a few MTN-ers have got a lot to be proud of this week. Alex Haidas, who is co-head of the risk transformation group at JPMorgan along with Desiree Fixler, has become a father. His wife had a baby boy yesterday. But will Alex be able to transfer the risk of changing nappies? Chris Cox, head of Euro-MTN trading at SSB, is feeling pretty pleased with himself too. He's been appointed managing director, as officially announced in the FT yesterday. He joins an elite crowd of MTN MDs, so Leak wishes him all the best. And who remembers an old hand in the MTN market, head at HSBC before Fergus Kiely, Keith Phair? He obviously hasn't been very busy after leaving MTNs as he has had yet another letter published in the FT (January 16) all about nationalizing Britain's railways. Leak thinks this time he has finally gone right off the rails. Tension is mounting in several banks as bonuses are about to be announced. Many traders report little work being done in the pre-bonus build up. But you wouldn't need to even dent your bonus to pick up one of Gavin Eddy's suits. UBS Warburg's head trader has proved that he's a caring person by donating all his old suits to Oxfam. Leak is off there tomorrow to see if it can pick up a bargain.

GUS, the UK retail and business group, confirmed this week that it is planning to float its luxury goods unit Burberry by the end of June. GUS announced in November 2000 that its plan was to float up to 25% of the company within 18 months. "Officially, the line is still that the deal is subject to market conditions, but in reality it is pretty certain to go ahead," said an official close to the company.

Qatar Syndication of the $572.25m 18 year project financing for the Ras Laffan Power and Water Desalination project is already oversubscribed, despite a number of banks that are still to respond.

Moody’s this week gave its clearest indication yet how Landesbanks will be rated once they are stripped of their state support mechanisms, by assigning a A3 rating to a groundbreaking tier one issue that Landesbank Schleswig-Holstein (LB Kiel) will soon launch via Lehman Brothers — a rating higher than most analysts had been predicting.

UK mobile phone operator mmO2's £1bn equivalent dual currency transaction this week confounded the sceptics who had doubted that such a sizeable issue was feasible for a weak triple-B telco. Certainly the success of the deal, lead managed by Citigroup/SSSB, Deutsche Bank and HSBC, was not obvious. Only two divisions of mmO2 - its Irish and UK businesses - are profitable, while its German and Netherlands businesses have yet to prove themselves. And while the company was demerged from BT plc with fairly modest debt of £500m, that figure is expected to rise in coming years as mmO2 rolls out its 3G network. The company's ratings are also on the cusp of investment grade at Baa2/BBB-.

Moody’s this week gave its clearest indication yet how Landesbanks will be rated once they are stripped of their state support mechanisms, by assigning a A3 rating to a groundbreaking tier one issue that Landesbank Schleswig-Holstein (LB Kiel) will soon launch via Lehman Brothers — a rating higher than most analysts had been predicting.

* ING Barings has hired Mark Bronder as director and head of Netherlands Securitisation. He replaces Kornelis Lammerts who moved to ABN Amro last year. Bronder joins from SG where he was responsible for its Netherlands securitisation business. He reports to Robert Plehn, head of European securitisation at ING in London.

We have received a flurry of telephone calls from Barclays, deep in the heart of the Dead Canary where the sun rarely shines and muggers lurk on every corner. We are pleased to report that during the whole of 2001 we never visited Canary Wharf once, and that the same resolution is high on our list of priorities for 2002. Our story about BarCap's CEO, Bob Diamond, and his £10m bonus, has certainly caught the eye of opportunistic ladies across the land. Many of our calls were from doe-eyed lovelies who wanted to become members of Mr Diamond's fan club, known as Bob's Babes. Calm down, girls. All you have to do is call Bob's charming assistant, Jane, and ask for an application form or how to access the fan club website. However, don't delay as membership might be restricted due to overwhelming demand.

2001 was a demanding year for the ratings agencies, with Argentina, Turkey and Russia requiring difficult judgments in the spotlight of market attention. It was also the year Moody's revised its position on sovereign ceiling constraints. EuroWeek asked Vincent Truglia, co-head of Moody's sovereign ratings group, how the agency tackled these tricky credits, and what the main concerns for 2002 are.