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The European holiday yesterday will have dampened activity slightly, but there were still nine trades announced, one of which, from Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten, was for euro500 million ($447.67 million). The trade was unsyndicated however and matures in five year's time. The others were quite small in comparison. Bayerische Landesbank did a euro10 million three-year deal that pays 2.5%. Merrill Lynch followed suit in terms of size, but their three euro10 million notes go out to August 2008. Cassa Di Risparmio di Firenze announced a euro63.53 million note that matures in September 2006. BNP Paribas was the bookrunner. It is the issuer's fourth note this year, all of which have been denominated in euro and all of which have been led by BNP Paribas, the arranger of the programme. Credit LyonnaisFinance (Guernsey) announced two trades. One, for euro7.6 million and one for euro1.5 million. Both mature in August next year. And Development Bank of Singapore did the smallest euro note of the day. It was a euro900,000 four-year trade.

Only seven trades were announced in euro yesterday, possibly due to the upcoming holiday, but there were a couple of reasonable sizes. Credit Lyonnais did a euro250 million ($223.83 million) three-year note via Salomon Smith Barney. It matures in August 2004. And FCE Bank did a euro175 million trade via Banca d'Intermediazione Mobiliare that goes to March 2005. Its coupon is Euribor+37.5 basis points. But apart from these two and France Telecom's euro100 million two-year note, none of the other trades was for more than euro20 million. HSBC Bank and Societe Generale Acceptance both went for notes of this size. HSBC's had a term of just two months, but SGA's goes out to December 2009. Abbey National Treasury Services announced a euro10.95 million note that it issued through Salomon Smith Barney. It has a term of three years. And St Michael Finance did the smallest note of the day: a euro9 million one-year trade that pays a final coupon of 4.205%.

France Télécom (FT) dominated talk in the telecoms sector this week after Moody's revised the outlook on its A3 rating late on Monday from stable to negative, fuelling expectation that the French operator could lose its single-A status. Analysts were not surprised by the news, but they found the timing strange. "While a stable outlook clearly did not make sense any more," said one, "there have not been any new developments to prompt Moody's to take action at this time."

The agency market was quiet this week, ahead of today's (Friday's) Benchmark announcement from Fannie Mae and Wednesday's meeting of the Federal Open Markets Committee. Fannie Mae will announce its plans for a two or three year line and a five year. The minimum new issue size for those maturities is $4bn, leading to suggestions that the five year might be a re-opening.

Goldman Sachs this week announced the shock appointment of Bill Young, the head of Citibank/Schroder Salomon Smith Barney's highly successful securitisation group in Europe. Young will join as a managing director and co-head of the European structured and principal finance group at Goldman Sachs, partnering Mark Kogan, who moved over from Goldman's New York office last October.

Goldman Sachs this week announced the shock appointment of Bill Young, the head of Citibank/Schroder Salomon Smith Barney's highly successful securitisation group in Europe. Young will join as a managing director and co-head of the European structured and principal finance group at Goldman Sachs, partnering Mark Kogan, who moved over from Goldman's New York office last October.

Heller Financial has increased the amount off its $1 billion Euro-CP programme to $1.5 billion. The programme was signed in 1998 via Citibank, with Citibank, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan and UBS Warburg as dealers. The amount was increased a year after signing, from the original amount of $500 million to $1 billion. The issuer's short-term ratings are P-2 by Moody's and A-2 by Standard & Poor's.