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Israel Citibank signed banks into the $100m five year loan for Israeli Telecommunications Corp (Bezeq) on Friday September 14.

* The future of Carol Anne Menzi Collier, who heads the public sector group at ABN Amro, is in doubt, after the bank decided to merge her group with Henry Tillman's financial institutions group, leaving Tillman in charge. ABN Amro is in discussions with Menzi Collier about her position.

New York is not back to normal, not by a long shot, and getting back to any semblance of what life was like before September 11 is more a question of whether than of when. The downtown financial district has been cut in half, lengthwise, with businesses east of Broadway up and running, at least nominally. The area west of Broadway remains a disaster area, although amazingly the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), sheltered from the blast by the Merrill Lynch tower, is operating, on a shortened schedule. The only access is by ferry, however, raising the rather weird prospect of a double-reverse commute. Even then, just to get to the building requires a NYMEX pass and a passport; all cameras and recording devices are banned; no re-entry into the building is allowed; and the only permissible destination on leaving NYMEX is the ferry terminal.

New York is not back to normal, not by a long shot, and getting back to any semblance of what life was like before September 11 is more a question of whether than of when. The downtown financial district has been cut in half, lengthwise, with businesses east of Broadway up and running, at least nominally. The area west of Broadway remains a disaster area, although amazingly the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), sheltered from the blast by the Merrill Lynch tower, is operating, on a shortened schedule. The only access is by ferry, however, raising the rather weird prospect of a double-reverse commute. Even then, just to get to the building requires a NYMEX pass and a passport; all cameras and recording devices are banned; no re-entry into the building is allowed; and the only permissible destination on leaving NYMEX is the ferry terminal.

* Dexia Funding Netherlands Guarantor: Dexia Bank

Outside of the dominant euro, US dollar and yen, Hong Kong dollar dominated yesterday's trading. Svensk Exportkredit closed a 10-year HK$80 million ($10.26 million) note off its $10 billion Asian MTN programme. The plain vanilla note pays interest annually and carries a final coupon of 6.100%. HSBC (Netherlands) also closed for HK$80 million. The note matures on the November 7 of this year and has a zero interest payment frequency. Credit Lyonnais Finance (Guernsey) went for smaller volume, with a HK$8 million MTN that matures on November 14 2001. Societe Generale Acceptence closed three Hong Kong dollar trades, all for HK$77.50 and all with zero interest payment frequencies. Two of the notes mature on November 16 2001, while the other matures on December 21 of this year. The only other currency traded was Australian dollar. New South Wales Treasury Corp closed a A$200 million ($96.87 million) MTN that matures on October 17 2005. The note has a final coupon of 4.530% and pays interest semi-annually.

* Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank AG

Trades in other currencies hit a low on Friday. Only one transaction was made: a HK$77.50 million ($9.94 million) three-month note issued by Societe Generale Acceptance (SG). The note comes off the issuer's euro30 billion ($27.32 billion) Euro-MTN programme. SG was the bookrunner off the trade. The note will be issued on December 21 2001.

With the effects of the terrorist attack still at the forefront of people's minds, the Republic of the Philippines has started to look with renewed interest at the yen denominated bond market. The Department of Finance (DoF) has asked a number of Japanese and international houses to present yen denominated funding proposals in either the Samurai or yen structured bond markets over the next seven days.

The Eu410m loan for Enterprise Solutions, now renamed Damovo, was launched to a bank meeting yesterday (Thursday), while the Eu2.35bn leveraged deal for Valentia will be launched in the next few days. Bank meetings took place this week for the loans supporting the buy-outs of Dutch bicycle manufacturer Gazelle and jewellery group Marc Orian in France. Next week should see the launch of the credit for the Henderson Private Capital sponsored buy-out of Leisure Link. The Eu180.5m loan for Photo Group is receiving enquiries as it closes from banks that will now have to buy paper in the secondary market. Set against these positive signs for the leveraged loan market is talk of deals delayed and launches postponed, in the wake of falling valuations and a flight to quality from any deals with US exposure. Indeed, arrangers have expressed frustration at some of the snappy decisions being made. "Banks are walking away from deals without making an informed decision," noted a leveraged financier. "We are involved in a deal that is meant to involve four banks that we will probably end up arranging ourselves."

Slovenian issuer, Poslovni Sistem Mercator, has signed a Euro-CP programme for euro100 million ($92.66 million). There were no further details available at the time of publication, but Deutsche Bank is the IPA.

Norway EuroWeek understands that the beleaguered engineering company Kvaerner has secured a NKr900m short term facility to alleviate liquidity problems.