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Ile de France has put its name to a euro500 million ($893.42 million) French CP programme. BNP Paribas and HSBC CCF are the joint arrangers. Jerome Pellet, public sector origination at HSBC CCF, says: "This is a really important move as it is the first French region to sign a CP programme. We are sure that the programme will do well and that we will see more French regions coming to the market." The signature comes six months after Ile de France signed its long-awaited euro1 billion Euro-MTN programme. The issuer has still to make its first issue off the facility but Andre Autrand, chief financial officer at Ile de France, says: "We are preparing an MTN issue of euro100 million and people will see this on their screens in the next few weeks." Ile de France used the Bloomberg network to market its MTN programme and Autrand is considering it for the new facility. Autrand says: "We will use all means to speak with investors and this includes electronic devices such as the Bloomberg, roadshow, which we used for our MTN programme." Moody's and Standard & Poor's rate the programme P-1 and A-1+ respectively. The appointed dealers on the programme are the arrangers, CDC IXIS Capital Markets, CIC, Credit Agricole Indosuez, Natexis-Banques Populaires and SG.

Interbanca and UniCredito Banca Mobiliare (UBM SpA) have won the mandate to arrange a Eu955m loan for Italian broadband internet services provider FastWeb SpA. The headline margin on the credit is 437.5bp, a spread over 80bp wider than any previous deal in the Italian loan market, according to Dealogic Loanware. The corporate loan supports the build-out of the borrower's fibre-optic cable network, and is similar in structure to a project finance transaction.

Corporate debt markets continued to rally this week after the recent round of rate cuts, with credit spreads tightening across the board. The receptive environment allowed for several successful transactions, none more so than the Eu5bn five year global bond for the EIB launched off its EARNs programme. Careful premarketing and bookbuilding resulted in a book of Eu10bn for the supranational and the deal was hailed as an unequivocal success. The revival in appetite for corporate debt was underlined by the strong demand for AT&T's jumbo multi-tranche offering denominated in dollars and euros. The US telco raised $10.01bn across four tranches and reportedly drew an order book of $30bn.

Portugal Telecom took advantage of a thriving convertibles market yesterday (Thursday) to launch an opportunistic Eu550m deal. The issue was twice covered, but drew complaints from investors and rival bankers for beingoverly aggressive. The deal was a reminder, after the blowout success of Swiss Re the day before, of the competition between banks to win mandates in the sector. The mandate for the deal was won on Wednesday night after a tight bidding process.

Would you believe that ABN Amro in London has joined the glitterati jet set and that if you venture to 250 Bishopsgate you may have to fight your way through lines of paparazzi and a throng of nubile groupies waving autograph books? What has happened to change ABN Amro's image? Normally the most exciting event on ABN Amro's social calendar is a demonstration of clog dancing by selected employees from Amsterdam HQ, followed by a Bols gin and Red Bull drinking competition. Perhaps chairman Rijkman Groenink has hired Claudia Schiffer as head of sales? Has Prince William signed up for the graduate training programme in 2004? No, the popping cameras and crowds of autograph hunters are all the result of the sensational news that an ABN Amro employee, a Mr Tim Attias, is escorting the vivacious and still frisky Jerry Hall, who was once married to Mick Jagger and is considerably richer thanks to that association. This is the best publicity that ABN Amro has had for ages and we hope that chairman Groenink has given the orders to milk the story with all the resources the bank can muster. How about a photo shoot on the steps of 250 Bishopsgate? Could Ms Hall be persuaded to be seen instructing her broker to buy 10,000 shares of ABN Amro - heaven only knows the stock needs all the help it can get.

Region of Sicily has upped the limit off its euro1.7 billion ($1.50 billion) global MTN shelf to euro3.2 billion. The programme has euro1.2 billion outstanding off two issues.

Republic of Cyprus is planning to raise the limit off its $1 billion Euro-MTN programme to $2 billion.

Russia's seventh largest oil exporter, Rosneft, finally issued the first corporate bond from Russia since the 1998 crisis on Tuesday via ABN Amro and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. The bond is undoubtedly a landmark issue. However, as a bellwether of investor appetite for the long queue of untested and unfamiliar corporate credits from the region, the deal was a disappointment, not least for fellow oil company Sibneft, which was mid-way through the roadshow for its own Eurobond at the time.

RTL Group has put its name to a euro2 billion ($1.77 billion) Euro-MTN programme. Deutsche Bank and Schroder Salomon Smith Barney are the arrangers. The signing follows RTL's euro1 billion Euro-CP programme and its euro900 million multi-currency revolving credit facility that were set up earlier this year. The issuer does not have immediate funding plans but Francois Masquelier, head of treasury and corporate finance at RTL, believes that the programme would prove useful if RTL plans to buy another media company. The programme is rated A3 and A- by Moody's and Standard & Poor's. The dealers off the programme are the arrangers, BNP Paribas, Commerzbank Securities, HSBC CCF, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch and SG.

Sanyo Shinpan Finance has added Credit Suisse First Boston, Daiwa Securities SMBC Europe and Morgan Stanley as dealers off its ¥50 billion ($411.32 million) Euro-MTN programme.

Finland A full list of banks joining the Eu100m multi-currency facility for Konekranes Finance has been released.

The Asian corporate debt market could be set for a hectic first quarter after Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) wowed global markets yesterday (Thursday), when it launched the largest global bond issue from Asia in the last three years.