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Many issuers have been complaining about the lack of long-dated funding available to them this year. But a structure for sterling borrowers suddenly arrived on the scene this summer: the retail price index-linked (RPI) note. It looks like being the perfect hedge for issuers with inflation-linked liabilities. And UK pension funds, with a lack of gilt supply, have been clamouring for the structure. However, issuers have been slow to embrace the RPI-linked note. Only 2.5% of sterling trades this year have been RPI-linked. And only nine issuers have accessed the sector, raising £

Norway Commerzbank (bookrunner) and SEB (documentation and facility agent) signed banks into the $70m five year term loan facility for Finansbanken. The deal closed oversubscribed but the borrower decided not to take an increase.

CAIUA Servicos de Eletricidade (Caiua) is due to sign a $300 million Euro-MTN programme next week. Unibanco Securities is the arranger and sole dealer. The first trade will be a $50 million plain vanilla note issued at the end of November. George Cals, financial superintendent at Caiua, says: "We are setting up the programme to modify our debt profile. We also have a domestic debentures programme, signed in May 2000. We hope to attract investors mainly in the US and Europe." The issuer has no plans to issue in yen, although the programme does allow it to do so. Moody's assigned the programme a B1 rating on November 1 - this is the Brazilian debt rating ceiling. It is the second Brazilian utility to sign an MTN programme following LIR Energy, which signed a $300 million Euro-MTN in August 2000.

Securitas is due to sign its euro1.5 billion ($1.27 billion) Euro-MTN programme next week, as reported in MTNWeek, issue 207. Commerzbank, Salomon Smith Barney and SEB will join the arrangers, BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank, on the dealer panel. The issuer concluded its roadshow this week, which took it to the major finance centres of Europe, including Helsinki and Stockholm. Securitas is planning its debut note, which will be a euro500 million plain vanilla note with a tenor of five or seven years. Olaf Bengtsson, director of corporate finance at Securitas, says: "We have planned our debut note, but going forward we have yet to discuss the kinds of structures, currencies and maturities we will issue off the programme. We would like to attract long-term investors, mainly from Euroland, Sweden and the UK." The arrangers were chosen because they already had established relationships with Securitas. Securitas is a global security firm and provides security guards, alarm systems, and cash transportation to customers in more than 30 countries.

Securitas hopes to sign a euro1.5 billion ($1.29 billion) Euro-MTN programme at the end of November. The arrangers are BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank. The roadshow began yesterday, November 16 in London. Moody's rates the issuer Baa1 and Standard & Poor's rates it BBB+.

US dollar swaps widened sharply yesterday (Thursday) as equities sold off and Treasuries rallied. The US economy is displaying signs of weakness and the shares of technology companies slumped, giving Nasdaq its worst month since the 1987 crash. The 10 year swap spread widened to a mid of 117.5bp and the five year pushed out to 106.75bp. Two year swaps are 78bp, while 30 year levels are unchanged.

Moody's aligned itself with Standard & Poor's (S&P) and Fitch this week, when it announced plans to change the way it rates preferred stock. Unlike the other rating agencies, which rate preferred stock and bonds on the same scale, Moody's has used a different rating scale for prefs - arguing that there are "fundamental differences between preferred stock and bonds".

* European Investment Bank Rating: Aaa/AAA

* BES Finance Ltd Guarantor: Banco Espirito Santo SA

Domestic issuance: * Pfandbriefzentrale der Schweizerischen Kantonalbanken

Sceptics insist that credit derivatives and synthetic securitisation are a flash in the pan. But most of the evidence suggests these techniques are so powerful and versatile that they will play a vital role in the new world of grown-up risk management.