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Société Générale is talking to commodity exporting and trading companies with a view to including them in its innovative risk transfer programme Mercure Trade Finance. SG designed the programme last year to reduce the credit and country risks in its commodities and trade finance division. It is akin to a synthetic CLO, in that the assets remain on SG's balance sheet, and investors provide capital which SG can draw on under a credit default swap if it experiences losses above a certain level.

Ten year dollar swap spreads ended yesterday (Thursday) trading slightly through the support level of 117bp over Treasuries that has persisted from April through June, at 116.5bp. For much of the week, 10 year swap spreads traded around 117bp, but the weight of new issues finally told, pulling the spread to a level 1bp lower than a week earlier. The market has been driven by new issue business this week. "The investment banks have been running the show," said a dealer at a money centre bank in the mid-West. "They know where the real market is at the moment."

Schroder Salomon Smith Barney expects to price Abbey National's record breaking £2.246bn securitisation of UK residential mortgages, Holmes Financing (No 1) plc, on Monday. "There is a lot of work to be done on the credit side and several important clients have asked for extra time," said Peter Apostolicas, director of syndicate for ABS at Salomon in London.

John Nacos, European head of Merrill Lynch's global mortgage capital and real estate group, left the bank in mid-June. He has joined Creditweb, an internet based mortgage and consumer finance company, as chief financial officer and a member of the board.

Crédit Agricole Indosuez executed its first collateralised loan obligation at the end of June, transferring nearly Eu2bn of credit risk with a structure placed entirely in credit default swap form. Known as CHLOE, the transaction conveys the risk on a Eu2.006bn portfolio of reference assets - syndicated loans and bonds representing the credit risk of 85 corporates.

BANK One has hired two experienced portfolio managers in London to help structure its planned bond arbitrage vehicle. Chris Hutton, head of debt capital markets at Halifax's group treasury, will join Bank One on Monday, while Neil Calder, assistant director in structured finance at Bank Austria Creditanstalt International, will move to the US bank in August.

Electricité de France has mandated Bayerische Landesbank to arrange a Eu2bn securitisation of current and future receivables from small and medium sized corporate customers. The German bank plans to execute the transaction in the asset backed commercial paper market. The two other shortlisted bidders, BNP Paribas and a consortium of CDC Marchés and Merrill Lynch, had offered bond solutions.

The Italian subsidiary of Hypo Alpe Adria Bank, the Landesbank for the Austrian state of Carinthia, made its capital markets debut this week with a Eu158m securitisation of leases, lead managed by BNP Paribas. Hypo Alpe Adria Bank SpA engaged in the transaction to take the assets off balance sheet and gain an alternative source of finance to domestic banks and the parent institution.

ABN Amro last Friday launched its $3bn asset backed commercial paper conduit, Sunflowers Funding Corp LLC, which will securitise financial assets originated by Bank Labouchere, the Dutch bank that is being taken over by Dexia. The Delaware based programme issues US CP rated A-1+/P-1/F-1+. ABN Amro or other similarly rated banks will provide 100% liquidity cover. There is no programme wide credit enhancement, and the assets are expected to be sufficient to cover interest and fees, according to Fitch, but further credit enhancement may in future be provided through overcollateralisation or a letter of credit.

Exponentially weighted historical simulation (EWHS) puts a portfolio through a series of historical scenarios with heavier weightings given to more recent events.

The Korea Asset Management Corp, the state workout agency for bad loans from South Korea's banks, is expected to launch its first international securitisation in the next few weeks. "The issue should be finalised towards the end of this month," said a banker close to the transaction. Deutsche Bank and UBS Warburg are joint bookrunners on the deal.

THE Nasdaq IPO of Netease.com proved a disappointment to the company and to sole lead manager Merrill Lynch. The stock fell more than 20% on the first day of trading last Friday, just before the US Independence Day holiday. The stock recovered slightly to close at $13-1/8 on Wednesday, but still more than 15% below the issue price. Netease was priced in the middle of the $14-$17 range.