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Toshiba Capital has increased the ceiling on its $800 million Euro-MTN programme to $1 billion. The programme has $286.70 million outstanding off 30 trades.

UBS Warburg has topped the MTNWeek issuance league table for the first time, knocking Salomon Smith Barney (Salomon) off the top spot. It has issued $13.44 billion off 558 trades which meet the MTNWeek private placement criteria (see back page). Salomon had held the number one position since May when it edged out Merrill Lynch. From the beginning of the year the two US houses had been jostling for the number one position. And this is the first time a European house has occupied the top position since MTNWeek capped the tables at $250 million in January 1999. Last year Salomon dominated the table, sharing the top spot with Nomura at the beginning of the year. It was toppled by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter at the end of 1999. UBS Warburg has traded in eight currencies this year, with most trades split evenly between dollar (25.6%), euro (24.4%) and yen (24%). Although it favours short-dated trades with 55% of its business in the one- to three-year sector, this quarter it has done more 10-year and over paper, with 13.7% of its business in this sector.

Bookbuilding has begun for Deutsche Bank and ING Barings' £86.7m IPO for internet security company N-Cipher. The deal will sell 25% of the company and the majority of 34m shares sold will be new. The LSE listing will price on October 17. Trading is expected to begin on October 19. The company will sell shares in the US under Rule 144a. N-Cipher is a leading supplier of internet security products using public key infrastructure. It also has a product that speeds up internet access.

EuroWeek hears that Kingston Communications (Hull) plc is preparing to tap the market for a £250m financing. The borrower is thought to be close to mandating ABN Amro, Bank of America, Barclays Capital, Royal Bank of Scotland and Toronto-Dominion for the deal. The borrower last tapped the market through mandated arranger Robert Fleming & Co in March 1998 for a £85m term loan.

Globals * Citigroup Inc

* BBVA Global Finance Ltd Guarantor: Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA

It's probably fair to say that MTNers know how to take care of themselves and Peter Matza at Thames Water is no exception. He made sure that he was far away on holiday when the lovely tour of the company's sewerage factory took place last week. Leek's found out that while dealers Tiina and Rupert were wading through the factory's exhibits, Peter was off in Milan at the Chelsea football game. Die hard Chelsea supporter Simon Hill from CSFB was also spotted in the crowd. And die-hard fan of the MTN market, Keith Phair, has emerged again in the spotlight. Regular readers may remember the report that the former HSBC desk-head made his television debut on Points of View. Well, he's moved up a notch. He's been spotted on CNBC in his new role as expert extraordinaire on all things Europoean. Dealing rooms across London were brought to a standstill with Kieth's mugshot on the screen. Who would've thought? So a glittering MTN career can lead to stardom.

New recruits to the exciting world of MTNs have been announced this week. (Hasn't anyone warned them off yet?) Fergus at HSBC can't believe his luck as he's now wedged into his desk not only by Anne-marie but now also by Tammy Li, who's joined them from syndicate. And the Merrill desk has finally found a head. It's Anthony Everill, also a syndicate guy. And not to be out-done, Matt Pass at Greenwich NatWest is considering a new hire later in the year. And on the subject of charity cases, the annual MTN/ECP dinner in aid of SPARKS is planned for The Brewery in London on November 25. Jimmy Hill and Annabel Croft will be among the attractions but organisers Julia Ward and Louise Mason plan to keep things under control. But with the Thanksgiving holiday in the US the next day they'll have a job keeping people subdued. And judging from the performance of some dealers at the Nationwide party last week Julia and Louise will have to particularly watch out for the UK gang. Nationwide set sail for its annual cruise along the Thames. Some dealers took the meaning of cruise a little too metaphorically as they worked their way around the dance floor trying to impress members of the opposite sex. Fergus Kiely was supposed to be shmoozing clients but it seems as if a certain member of the HSBC treasury team distracted the lad. And both Matt Pass (again? - Leak thought Matt was supposed to be tucked up at home with a mug of cocoa and his teddy bear now the winter nights are upon us) and Frair Appleby-Walker of Barclays were seen strutting their stuff to the band. Nationwide don't seem too wild on spending excess cash on hiring big name international rock 'n' roll acts. Apparently the Rolling Stones were too busy so the boys from the building society approached Rob Ford on Barclay's FRN desk, who has a band called Light Alloy. We are told that this witty nomenclature is to hide the fact that they are nothing more than a Bryan Adams tribute band. This did not bother Friar. She was still swaying to the band's rhythm long after the boat had stopped moving. Continuing this nautical theme, congratulations go to Henry Nevstad who has taken Deutsche Bank's naff new ad campaign to heart. He and a select handful of dealers were invited to the Icelandic MTN bash, ahem, conference. After a few minutes of business the guys at Icelandic Investment Bank bundled the MTNers into jeeps and drove them at high speed across glaciers. Then, after being put into rafts and sent down white-water rapids, the final challenge was for the dealers to dive off a cliff. Performance obviously does lead to results because Henry, not to be outdone by Marianna Oakland - I work for JP Morgan - did the biggest jump. He was voted bravest dealer and brings home another trophy for Tiina to shine.

If there's a prize going for best reward for dealer performance, Thames Water would win it hands down. Last Tuesday the borrower decided to treat JP Morgan's Rupert Lewis and Deutsche's Tiina Lee to a tour of its sewerage works in Twickenham - one of the biggest in Europe. What did they do to deserve such special treatment? The whole day was spent in detailed examination of the how factory gathers, processes, and distributes crap. Tiina and Rupert are now experts in the field. (Surely the warning bells rang when the invitation told them to bring their own wellington boots.)