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In the week following the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the SEC relaxed rules allowing companies to buy back their equity. As a result, most of the capital markets activity has been short-dated debt by higher-rated entities looking to take advantage of the massive steepening of the yield curve to fund stock buybacks. First out of the shoots was a two-tranche bought deal from A2/A Disney. The 2-year and 3-year offerings (each $500 million) priced with eye-catching coupons of 3.9% and 4.5%, respectively. GE Capital also came to market with a $2 billion 1-year floater. We expect to see this trend continue near-term. Overall, the average weighted maturity of debt issued was under 5 years for the first time this year and weighted average credit quality remained at AA/AA-.

Gerhard Lewark, senior vice president and treasurer

Guido Magrini, director general of finance

Juan Mario Laserna, director of public credit, ministry of finance and public credit

László Búzás, managing director of the government debt management agency (AKK)

Fabrizio Ghisellini, head of the Italian treasury's international funding programme

Vasco Pereira, chief executive officer, Instituto de Gestão do Crédito Público

Eduardo Sergio Gonzalez Edeza, treasurer, bureau of the treasury (BoTr), department of finance

Arnon Ikan, senior director for foreign currency transactions, accountant general's office, ministry of finance

For Borrowers 2001, EuroWeek interviewed representatives of 15 issuers with public sector missions to create this definitive survey of the challenges facing such borrowers today. In his foreword below, Gumersindo Oliveros, director, treasury finance department, at the World Bank shares his views on how the market has developed over the past year.

The publication of this supplement was planned in conjunction with the annual meetings of the World Bank and the IMF. The meetings were cancelled in light of the tragic events in the US. Please note that many of the interviews included in this supplement were conducted before September 11.

Werner Taiber, global co-head of primary markets, WestLB Global Financial Markets