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WorldCom broke new issuance records this week by launching an $11.9bn three currency financing that included the biggest ever dollar raising of $10.1bn. Despite choppy market conditions the deal, led by JP Morgan and Salomon Smith Barney, attracted 600 investors with $30bn of demand. It was increased from $7bn to $8bn, was priced at the tight end of revised price talk and traded several basis points tighter on all tranches at the break.

* BSCH International Ltd

China Shanghai General Motors Corp's $600m equivalent, five year fundraising arranged by Citibank NA (Hong Kong) has been closed oversubscribed. The arranger is finalising the amount before signing the facility.

Kemal Dervis, Turkey's minister of economy, has finalised a deal for the privatisation of Turk Telecom, achieving enough concessions to ensure the IMF will start issuing funds at its next board meeting on May 15. After a 4-1/2 hour meeting with the three party leaders from the ruling coalition, it was agreed to limit any purchase by a foreign strategic investor to 45%, in line with demands from the Turkish military.

Abbey National, the UK's second largest mortgage bank, will next week launch a £2.17bn securitisation, its third from the master trust vehicle it created in June last year. Lead managed by Credit Suisse First Boston and Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, the deal is the first of two Abbey plans to launch over the next two months.

Banca Monte Dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), one of Italy's 10 largest banks and which claims to be one of the oldest banks in the world (founded in 1472), last Friday launched a Eu348m securitisation backed by personal investment loans to its most credit worthy clients. Lead managed by BNP Paribas and MPS itself, the deal is the first public securitisation of this asset class in Italy. Only a few similar deals have been completed in Europe.

Three small Italian co-operative banks, located in the Tuscany and Piedmont regions, are preparing to launch a groundbreaking Eu95.2m securitisation in the next two weeks. Lead managed by Banca IMI, the deal will combine the mortgage portfolios of the three banks to create a pool large and diverse enough to securitise - something they could not achieve alone.

Swiss Re Capital Markets this week closed a $120m catastrophe bond that transfers the risk of windstorms in France and a hurricane in Florida or Puerto Rico into the capital markets. The deal is the first to securitise hurricane risk in Puerto Rico and it is also the first to provide using a catastrophe bond - what is known in the insurance world as a reinstatement.

The buyside in general sees the efforts to cut/waive assignment fees as a positive step, but still a few dozens steps away from the promised land. Roughly 60% of respondents said moves to alleviate the assignment fee burden have helped the market, noting that lopping off fees can make smaller trades more economical and investors tend to gravitate toward the players that will waive fees. But a large part of the "yes" group gave a qualified endorsement.

Sixty-nine percent of fund managers agree that consolidation has had a negative effect on the market this year, but responses indicated that they think this in varying degrees. The general consensus was that consolidation has placed the power of the market in the hands of a few banks. One manager went so far as to describe the market as an oligopoly. With bigger banks grabbing more of the market, "The survivors are taking advantage of their growing strength," said one manager, not specifying just how it is they're doing this. That power shift, some said, has taken some of the aggressiveness out of the market. "Banks are less aggressive in general," one respondent said. "Investors have [fewer] options, so suspect banks are able to take more out of trades. You get the sense there's more complacency."

Harnischfeger Industries' attempt to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy is said to be prompting trades at around 50. Loews Cineplex's bank debt is now offered at 88, and bids are in the 85 range, according to dealers. An auction earlier in the week resulted in a trade of Bridge Information System's bank debt at 35.5, up from 30 last week.